Wisteria Blues
by Azure Serenity
Summary: Books were her friends, charcoal & ink her allies, music her escape and photography her outlet. So... what was he?
1. Fallout

And so, because my Muse, Ri-chan, passed her ubber hard exams - that I knew she'd nail - I decided she deserved cookies, so I'm writing this new fic for her.  
>Always SasuSaku of course :P<p>

With some prompts from her, this came along!

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I'm really sorry it's been so long since I last posted anything, real life's been a bitch ever since I started college... and I'm just starting to get my writing buzz back - to Scarlet Ambiguity fans, worry not, it may take a while, but I really want to make the sequel for it!

Since you're all such sweeties and have given me such wonderful support, I'll be nice and tell you the sequel's title - sounds good right?

And the title will be *insert drum roll here* Auburn Resonance!

Please do look forward to it!

In other news, I'll also be re-writing The longest year ever, whose title I'll be changing to Carnelian Butterfly!

Anyway, without further ado, my I present you my newest work !

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**A.N. **I do not own Naruto or its characters, nor do I own Linkin Park or their songs. This plot, it's plot and everything related to it, was made through my imagination, so please do not plagiarize.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**The sentence that started it all: **In which Sakura... goes to the Garden.

**Details:** (prompts)

AU

High School

Hentai level 5 !

Written while listening to Linkin Park

**_Anyway..._**

* * *

><p>.<p>

**Wisteria Blues  
><strong>

**Summary: **Books were her friends, charcoal & ink her allies, music her escape and photography her outlet. So... what was he?

* * *

><p>.<p>

**Part I** - Fallout

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**.: ~ ~ :.**

She hated people. No. She loathed them.

She'd always preferred having a book to read or something to draw with, than being around people. She'd gotten the label of bookworm, anti-social. It didn't matter.

She couldn't care less.

Wherever she'd been, they'd always found something to throw at her. She was too thin, too short, her forehead too wide, her hair too straight, always something too much or too little or too this or too that.

She hated it. Hated them.

And that's why she kept to herself.

Books were her friends, charcoal and ink her allies, music her escape and photography her outlet.

People on the other hand, were her enemies. Her loathed enemies.

She hated people, just hated them.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ i ~ :.**

She wondered how she'd gotten herself into this… situation.

This predicament.

This thing.

Issue, state. The terminology didn't matter, it depended on what she felt like calling it at the moment. Because it didn't really have a specific name it could be called.

So… how?

How had she gotten herself into this, whatever it was?

"_Let's make a deal…"_ He'd said that the first time, and she'd told him to fuck off.

He hadn't backed off though. He'd started taunting her, pissing her off, getting on her nerves.

Every day he had a new way to get under her skin, until one day she just snapped.

She yelled at him to _leave her the fuck alone_. But he didn't seem to be listening, always getting closer. So she punched him in the face, and when he staggered back, blood starting to drip down his nose, she side-kicked him in the ribs.

He fell straight to the floor, flat on his ass, holding his ribs and gasping for air.

The next day he had the left side of his face in a nasty purplish bruise, the area of his cheek under his eye and the side of his nose holding the mark of her hand. He told everyone he took a baseball ball to the face while he walked through the park—_came out of nowhere and the jackass didn't even apologize._ His ribs—the way he seemed to struggle to breathe once in a while—he didn't mention and no one noticed.

Liar. He was a liar. She hated liars.

But he wasn't trying to get on her nerves, and that was good.

The mirror in front of her reflected the bathroom's light bulb. She ran the black eyeliner pencil over her eyelid, drawing a dark line.

If only he'd taken the hint and stayed away.

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><p>.<p>

**.: ~ ii ~ :.**

It was all her mother's fault, really. If the witch could even be called a mother, she was merely the woman who'd given birth to her. Nothing else.

But it was all her fault anyway. It was the hag's fault she hated people, and it was the hag's fault she hated switching cities.

She hated moving around, never having a specific place she could call home. She hated being the new girl. Everyone always stared, gossiped and found something to hold against her. It was the same everywhere.

She'd been born in Tokyo and lived in the world's biggest city until she was 7. Then it'd been 3 years in London, followed by a few months in Paris. They'd moved to Rome after that, and 2 years later, when she was 13, it'd been Seoul. Now, 4 or so years later, it was Los Angeles.

She hated it.

But then, she loved just one of those cities. She loved Seoul.

Yes, the city itself was amazing, but that's not what she loved about it. What she loved were the people—just a few people really. Seoul had been the only city where she'd had friends. And she loved her friends. They were her family. They were her everything.

And now they were gone.

She hated Los Angeles. It was too noisy, the people too meddling and stuck-up.

She wanted to be back in Seoul. She wanted to be back with her family.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" She ignored the annoyance of a girl and walked past her, settling on the last steps of the stairs.

"Hey! I asked you where you were going." And now she stood over her, red hair and black-rimmed rectangular glasses, hooker shorts and too-tight top.

"What's it to you?" She didn't even bother looking up, just finished tying the laces of her black & red converse.

"Excuse me!" the banshee sounded outraged. She stood up, walking past her. "Mom told me I was in charge." She just walked past the now screeching banshee, sliding her headphones on, Linkin Park blasting in her ears.

The elevator doors opened—because the jackass her mother had married this time around was some high-end aristocrat's son or some shit like that, so he owned a 3 story penthouse.

She entered and turned. The banshee was screeching, her mouth moving angrily. The shade of red covering her wasn't flattering at all. On the contrary.

The doors slid closed.

Ding.

"_Opposite from lazy_

_Far from a punk_

_Ya'll ought to stop talking_

_Start trying to catch up motherfucker"_

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><p>.<p>

**.: ~ iii ~ :.**

"_Let's make a bet…"_ that's what he'd said after the bruises she'd given him had faded and his caramel skin was back to being flawless.

He was a bastard.

A half-breed asian that thought he could get away with everything. His hubris, the over confidence he carried around, pissed her off. Not everyone else though.

Guys tended to either try to be his friend or stay away, and girls tended to fawn over him like bees to honey. She scoffed, he even had a fanclub.

But the jackass didn't take the hint with her, he just kept pushing, and pushing and pushing.

And maybe that's why she was still there, even though she could leave. He… tried to get to her. He cared not in the caring way, but in the way that he wanted to get under her skin. Other than those few people she called family in Seoul, no one ever tried to see her and not just the façade.

The asskicking she'd given him had only made him try to get on her nerves harder.

"_Wounds so deep they never show,_

_They never go away_

_Like moving pictures in my head,_

_For years and years they've played"  
><em>

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ iv ~ :.**

The woman who called herself her mother, ever since she could remember, was a womanizer. Only with guys.

It had always been boyfriend after boyfriend. Husband after husband.

Her father… she knew she had one, she hadn't been born out of nothing, and she wasn't her mothers' perfect copy, so she wasn't a scientific miracle. She had a father.

The thing was, she didn't remember him. At all. She had no memories, no pictures.

Sometimes it saddened her that she knew nothing about her father. But then, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing

You can't miss what you never had.

"_I wanna know the truth_

_Instead of wondering why_

_I wanna know the answers_

_No more lies"  
><em>

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ v ~ :.**

"_Can't you see that you're smothering me_

_Holding too tightly, afraid to lose control?_

'_Cause everything that you thought I would be_

_Is falli—"_

She felt her headphones sliding away from her ears and wondered who was stupid enough to take away her music.

Slowly the hard-edged icy look settled in her eyes.

"What're you doing here?" Ah! That explained it, it was the bastard.

"What's it to you?" She turned only enough to see him and for him to see her glare.

Her headphones settled on her shoulders.

"Bitchy much." She scoffed.

"Bastard much?" he smirked.

Figured he'd smirk. She swore his overconfidence would get him in trouble one day—the kind that'd get his ass in jail.

She just ignored him. Reaching into her pocket she turned off her iPod and then looked back towards the city.

People said Los Angeles was a beautiful city. No matter how much they tried to convince her, she still didn't like it. There was too much concrete and too little aesthetic detail. There was no beauty in piled up blocks of cements.

Seoul, on the other hand, was beautiful. There was aesthetics. There were piled-up-block-of-cement buildings of course, but, for the most part, there was design and beauty and mixture of tradition and modernity, nature and technology you just couldn't find anywhere in the world.

She missed the gardens inside of buildings, the small shops where she'd eat her favorite foods. The traditional buildings.

A tug to her hair. Her patience was close to zero today.

"Sasuke." The _stop or I'm punching you_ was implicit in her tone of voice.

"What's your real hair color anyway?" she rolled her eyes, glancing at him though the corner of her eyes.

"Wouldn't you like to know." She smirked and he tugged at her ponytail again.

The wind wooshed past them. She huffed in irritation and pushed her bangs out of her eyes—she refused to cut her bangs short again, but sometimes it'd be more useful than the long ones she had now. they fell over her eyes, at the sides reaching just below her jaw.

He chuckled, now tugging at her bangs and she turned to face him.

"I think I do already." Oh! So he was back to talking about her hair color.

"Tch. Ever heard of Visual Kei?" she pushed his hand away from her face. "Leave me alone." With an icy stare, she turned back towards the ugly forest of concrete, leaning forward against the roof railing.

"Think you shouldn't have worn those jeans." She could feel the smugness.

"What's wrong with my jeans jackass?" and she could just feel the shrug.

"Never thought you'd wear something—"

"They're red jeans, get over it." Geez, had he never seen people wear red jeans? They were a lot more stylish than his ugly green shirt, that's for sure.

He huffed. She hid her smirk. Oh, sweet victory.

He went silent for a moment—_yeah, keep thinking, you may come up with something that'll have me throw you off the ledge with a justified cause._

No such luck.

He kept silent, but suddenly she could feel his body heat seeping into her, his breath so close to the side of her face, the fingers of his left hand tracing the back of her neck.

"Red jeans huh?" his breath felt warm against her ear.

"K-pop style baby." He went closer, his stomach against her arm. his right index finger traced her cheek.

"I'd've said Hollywood." She scoffed.

"Never." He gave a noncommittal sound and then turned her face towards him. His breath smelled like mint and spice—curry.

"Yeah, no, you're definitely not Hollywood." He smirked and all she wanted was to kick him for it.

But then, she couldn't. Because he kissed her.

** .: ~ TBC ~ :.**

* * *

><p>.<p>

**Songs used:**

When they come for me

Easier to Run

Run away

Numb

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By my standads, this is a little short, but I'm not aiming to make a hugeass story, but since I'm not able to do drabbles that well, I'll just do a short story :P

_Anyway..._

That's it for now, but I'm still writing!

Please leave me some feedback! I love reviews, they make me really happy and make me want to write faster for you guys! =]

I posted this on Livejournal as well :3

[I'll probably be posting it there first after I write it, so keep your eyes out there - the link to my lj's on my profile]

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Kisses & Hugs to everyone !

**-Azure Serenity**


	2. Points of Authority

Hello everyone!

So here's the new chapter of WB, hope you'll like it!

So far I'm kinda trying to make something like an introduction to the story, how it got to be what it is and all, the plot'll get 'thicker' per say, as the story goes along!

_Anyway..._

_._

Here goes a Shoutout to the awesome iamKayla, Runswithsizzors, black-red-rose-girl, Saiyuri Haruno, crazycinnamon, Girlalicious and Kaze and Kiba, who left me wonderful reviews!

Thanks for the support you guys! I really appreciate it :D

.

**A.N. **I do not own Naruto or its characters, nor do I own Linkin Park or their songs. This plot, it's plot and everything related to it, was made through my imagination, so please do not plagiarize.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**The sentence that started it all: **In which Sakura... goes to the Garden.

**Details:** (prompts)

AU

High School

Hentai level 5 !

Written while listening to Linkin Park

**_Anyway...  
><em>**

* * *

><p><strong><em> .<em>**

**Wisteria Blues  
><strong>

**Summary: **Books were her friends, charcoal & ink her allies, music her escape and photography her outlet. So... what was he?

**_._**

* * *

><p>.<p>

**Part II** - Points of Authority

.

**~~ .: vi :. ~~**

His breath brushed again her neck, his chest brushing against her back. She stood still, suspicious, eyes set in a cold stare.

"Let's make a bet." One of his arms was wrapped around her, just below her breasts, holding her arms. His free hand, he had it on her waist, his fingers fiddling with the edge of her jeans.

"Didn't I already tell you to fuck off?" he chuckled, his breath brushing against her skin. She wished it disgusted her. It didn't.

"I did. Last night." oh dear lord, he was a pig.

"You're disgusting." He chuckled and his fingers on her jeans dipped lower and inside, fiddling with her underwear.

"And you wouldn't want everyone to know the truth, now would you?" her eyes narrowed. What was the jackass talking about?

"Truth?" she sounded skeptical. His breath felt warm against her neck.

"Oh yeah." She felt more than heard him. "The truth about how Miss Asia isn't as composed and behaved as she seems." She laughed—empty and mocking.

"You think I care about what people think?" she shifted and he tightened his hold on her. "I don't give a shit dude." She turned her head so she could see his face. His eyes—onyx in color—had a dark quality to them that had nothing to do with color. The smirk was gone.

"If I did—" she shifted again. His hand slid away from her jeans, though his other arm stayed around her waist when she turned, her side to his chest. "—I wouldn't've dyed my hair." His eyes narrowed. His arm tightened and suddenly she was pressed tightly against him, his free hand now fisted in her hair.

"Right." He drawled the word, and she didn't like the look in his eyes one bit. "Because you're such a badass."

"Let go." She was tired of his mind games—he kept trying to get something out of her, and she wasn't willing to give him the satisfaction.

"What if I don't?" she smiled, like a predator who knew their prey was trapped. Leaning closer, she stopped just a breath away from kissing him.

"You'll wish you did."

"_String me up from atop these roofs  
>Knot it tight so it won't get loose<br>Truth is you can stop and stare  
>Run myself out and no one cares"<br>_

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><p><em> .<em>

**.: ~ vii ~ :.**

There were things she would never understand. The one she found herself wondering about a lot of times was why people always wanted more.

They got what they wanted, and when they did, they found something else they wanted. She didn't get why people were so… greedy.

But then again, the only thing she'd ever wanted was a family, and when she'd found one, to stay by that family. Her family… she didn't have it anymore.

The hallways of the school were empty as she walked through them, going up the stairs to the roof—peace and quiet and no meddling idiots to bother her. The only thing she liked about this damned school was the garden they had on the roof. It was… very zen.

She'd found it a few weeks after she'd started school, and she was glad she had. It had become her haven, a place where she could be alone without having to worry about looking over her shoulder.

The weather was nice out. Just a soft breeze flowing by. She hated it.

It was almost Christmas, but it was still like summer. The trees didn't lose their leaves, the flowers didn't wither.

There was no snow.

She sat under the canopy of the cherry trees planted on the roof-garden. Looking up through the leaves, the blue sky seemed brighter while the branches looked like shadows.

She smiled softly—at least nature couldn't lie. No matter what its state, it couldn't be ugly like people could.

Sliding her headphones over her ears, she dug into her messenger bag and took out a small digital camera.

She couldn't exactly carry her Canon around, so she had the small one always with her.

"_All I want to do  
>Is trade this life for something new<br>Holding on to what I haven't got"_

Linkin Park played softly while she looked up, her camera above her head. Angling it until the image on the small screen pleased her, she took some candid shots of what was around her.

Satisfied, she put her camera back in her bag and dug out a black notebook—_Death Note_ was written on the cover, a memento for her love of the manga.

To pass the time, she opening it to a black page and started doodling the landscape around her.

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><p>.<p>

**.: ~ viii ~ :.**

She hated him. Hated his mind games. But most of all, she hated that he'd found something to hang above her head.

"I told you so." He walked closer to her—her instincts told her to either run or kick his ass.

"Keep talking and you'll be bleeding out soon." He smirked—and why couldn't the half-breed jackass look like a creep while smirking? She blamed genetics.

"See, I don't feel it." She narrowed her eyes and refused to back away from him when he got close enough that she could feel his body heat. "Because if you pull that stunt again, you won't like the outcome."

"No? You have nothing on me." he had his body against her now. Smug bastard.

"How about." He paused and leaned in, breathing into her ear. "I tell them how easily you snap."

"I told I don't car—" he didn't let her finish.

"And…" he continued in a whisper, and she clenched her jaw. Fucking bastard.

Slowly, his hands ran up her arms and then he pushed her back, and back, and just a little more until she was trapped against the wall.

"Let's make a bet." He had that glint in his eyes. The one that said he was up to no good.

"Fuck you." He chuckled.

"We'll get to that, eventually." She looked at him in disdain.

"You're a pig."

His hand brushed against her cheek. She pulled away. He smirked.

Had she mentioned she hated him?

"I bet—" He smirked and leaned down. "—you can't make me keep my mouth shut."

"_Take everything from the inside_

_And throw it all away_

_Cuz I swear for the last time_

_I won't trust myself with you."_

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><p><em>.<em>

**.: ~ ix ~ :.**

"You know, for someone who doesn't talk much, you're awfully chatty." He was about to say something—that would get on her nerves, no doubt—but she continued before he could. "And by awfully I mean it's annoying as hell."

He smirked. She rolled her eyes.

Naruto came bounding back towards them, grin on his face.

What was it with this school and asian names on non-asians and half-breeds? It was beyond her comprehension.

"Aw, come on Sak, you shouldn't look so gloom and angst. Cheer up!" The blond was too cheery and too loud. How could Sasuke stand him anyway?

"Don't call me that dickhead—and keep your hands off me." She slapped his arm away when he tried to sling it over her shoulder.

She glared, the blue eyed blond pouted.

"Party-pooper." He stuck his tongue out at her and then huffed when Sasuke shrugged his other arm away from him. He was all grins the next second.

"So… you know that place near the pear? The one with the mean noodles?" the blond crossed his arms behind his head, walking between her and the emo-bastard. "I love that place. I mean, I dunno what that guy puts in the noodles, but man, it's so good I could keep eating them until I blow."

She sighed. Well this was bound to be the world's worst trip to the coffee shop. Talk about needing patience.

On the blonds' other side, Sasuke smirked.

When they finally walked into Starbucks, the place was packed.

Naruto was still blabbering away when Sasuke walked towards the counter to ask for a table—at least the blonds' blabbering serve some purpose, even if it was being annoying to the point of convincing the Uchiha to get them a table.

She rolled her eyes as she watched the overly confident jackass lean into the counter, flirting with the brown haired bimbo at the counter. She blushed and then she was out from behind the counter and leading him towards a table. He nodded, and she followed Naruto.

They settled their things on the corner booth near the window and then played contest to decided who would stay guarding the table—Naruto and Sasuke argued while she just wished she was somewhere else actually.

In the end, she had to go with Sasuke.

At the counter they got the same girl who the jackass next to her had flirted with. This was gonna be fun. Not.

"Hi, I'm Julie, how can I help you today?" Sasuke smirked and the girl blushed. She rolled her eyes.

"A cappuccino and a Latte." She smiled, being flirtly. Sasuke flirted back with a smirk.

And she was completely blown off.

"_Oh, hell no."_

"Excuse me." She tried to be polite, she really did, but the girl only glanced at her like she was superior and looked back to Sasuke.

"_Ok, fine, if that's how you wanna play it."_

"Hey bitch, stop flirting with my brother's boyfriend and order me a Chai Tea Latte." The girl chocked on her own saliva while Sasuke looked at her in shock—only for a second, the next second he was glaring at her.

Everyone in the coffee shop had stopped and was now staring at them.

She just looked at the girl evenly.

"Julie, get to work." One of the guys behind the counter spoke low only for the girl, and she fumbled with the cuts, as red as a tomato.

"Hm… huh… names please?" she squeaked. When she met her eyes, the girl looked away quickly.

"The Latte's for Naruto, the Cappuccino's for Sasuke and the Chai Tea Latte's for Sakura." The girl squeaked again. She wasn't looking at Sasuke anymore either. It was all very entertaining.

"Oh, hm, yeah, ok." She wrote the names in the cups with shaking hands. "Y-your drink w-will be ready in a bit, j-just wait at the end of the c-counter." She smirked at the girl and pushed Sasuke to start walking.

He glared at her the whole time they waited for their drinks.

When they got to the table, Naruto was grinning like an idiot.

"Oh my god, that was so Epic!" he burst out laughing and turned to Sasuke. "Oh man, you should've seen your face dude, it was so priceless." She smirked. "And the chick." He laughed some more. "The look on her face. Oh man!"

Sasuke's eyes twitched.

"Lighten up Sasuke, I'm sure you can still get laid." His stare was icy when he turned to her. Naruto watched closely, holding his breath and waiting for the punch-line.

"That hottie over there seems to like you." Naruto looked where she pointed, and he'd admit, the guy wasn't ugly. And he was really giving his best friend some serious googly eyes. So Naruto burst out laughing again.

And when Sasuke hit him in the back of the head, he laughed even harder.

She watched in amusement, a smirk on her lips. Two could play his game.

When they left, Naruto wasn't so annoying anymore. They bumped fists in conspiracy behind Sasuke's back.

Maybe it didn't have to be such a chore to have to stick close to the bastard after all.

"_But in the end_

_It doesn't even matter."_

**.: ~ TBC ~ :.**

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><p>.<p>

**Songs used:**

Bleed it out

Waiting for the end

From the inside

In the end

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So, for now I'm keeping to relatively small chapters - they may get bigger, or stay all around this lenght. What do you guys think: bigger or like this?

_Anyway..._

I hope you all enjoyed!

Please let me know what you thought, I love hearing what you guys have to say! :D

.

Kisses & Hugs

**-Azure Serenity**


	3. In between

Hi everyone!

A little later than last time, but here's the new chapter!

From now on they'll be longer and things will start to develop - please do let me know what parts you'd like to see more developed!

.

On another note, here goes a shoutout to my lovely reviewers iamKayla, Saiyuri Haruno and Girlalicious!

Thank you you guys! Your reviews make my day! :D

.

**A.N. **I do not own Naruto or its characters, nor do I own Linkin Park or their songs. This plot, it's plot and everything related to it, was made through my imagination, so please do not plagiarize.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**The sentence that started it all: **In which Sakura... goes to the Garden.

**Details:** (prompts)

AU

High School

Hentai level 5 !

Written while listening to Linkin Park

**_Anyway...  
><em>**

* * *

><p><strong><em>.<em>**

**Wisteria Blues  
><strong>

**Summary: **Books were her friends, charcoal & ink her allies, music her escape and photography her outlet. So... what was he?

**_._**

* * *

><p>.<p>

**Part III** - In Between

.

**.: ~ x ~ :.**

It was very poetic. Very very poetic.

Or not.

Maybe?

Whatever.

From someone's point of view, it was probably poetic.

For her… it was more like a pain in the ass.

"_Tch, stupid bastard."_

It was that assholes' fault. Who did he think he was to throw stuff like that around?

Oh no, he was not about to hang _that_ above her head. Absolutely not, she wouldn't allow it.

So, with that in mind, she found herself ditching Social Studies—she pretty much always did. She didn't care it was a mandatory class, it was boring. But ditching class wasn't the big deal.

What made it poetic—or not, whatever—was that she was ditching class because of the bastard.

It was convenient really, because at the same time she had social studies, because he was such an outstanding student—outstanding her ass—he had something else instead of the boring class with the creepy lady.

He had some kind of club practice? Or was it a class? She didn't get it, he was dismissed from class to play basketball with a bunch of other "outstanding" guy students.

So, while everyone else sat through Social Studies and the bastard played ball, she found herself walking into the guys' locker room.

It was an exact replica of the girl's locker room, except instead of orange, it had green for decoration. She supposed it was better than the blue/pink standard.

She raised a brow as she walked through the room, searching for the asshole's locker—according to what she'd heard from Naruto if wouldn't be far. Man, these guys were slobs—and were those someone's boxers hanging from the light bulb?

Huh, she didn't even want to know.

Looking at the numbers in the lockers, she passed a few more until she reached her destination.

"_Jackpot!"_

With a smirk, she leaned into the locker, listening closely to every little noise that could mean getting busted and started to open the lock. Focusing, she listened to its clicks.

"Oh yeah." She spoke under her breath as the lock opened and then set it aside.

A brow raised. He was neat. Clothes were folded properly, shoes underneath, bag at the back.

With a shrug, she started lifting and feeling things up—without messing anything up, the last thing she needed was him on her because she'd gone through his locker.

"_Now, where the hell is his cell phone."_

"_I'll never fight again_

_And this is how it ends."_

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><p><em>.<em>

**.: ~ xi ~ :.**

In a locker—a school locker where you put your gym gear—who was brilliant enough to put their cell phone next to the towel? An idiot no doubt.

Didn't the moron know that he'd risk having his phone dying because of a wet towel?

Well, whatever.

She browsed through his files, ignoring the 6 texts he had, until she found what she was looking for.

"_Oh hell no, you're not holding me with this."_

**Delete file?**

She raised a brow at the phone.

"_Hell yeah!"_ and she pressed the screen on yes.

**File deleted.**

"_Good."_

"What're you doing?"

She stiffened. How had she not heard him? How?

He walked closer, and she could feel him behind her, his breath brushing the side of her face. He was peeking at the phone in her hands.

She was fucked.

A chuckle. And then a hand running down her arm.

"Never thought you'd be..." she was mentally beating herself up as he made the dramatic pause. "…such a girl about this."

Oh dear Buddha. It wouldn't do much in her favor to tell him to fuck off would it?

No, it would only make it worse. So she kept quiet.

She felt his chest against her back as he took the phone from her hands.

"You deleted it." He did not sound pissed or annoyed, he sounded amused. Fuck. That couldn't be good.

He threw his phone into the locker, closing it afterwards. And then, out of nowhere—ok, she kinda saw it coming—she was pressed face first into the locker she'd broken into.

"_Damn it, damn it, damn it."_

She could feel his body against her, pressed into her back. She was trapped, and she couldn't do anything about it.

She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing it bothered her.

His hands were touching places they shouldn't—places she didn't want to be touched. He was seriously pushing his luck.

But that _thing_…

"You didn't think I was stupid enough to not make copies did you?"

And she couldn't help the instinctive cursing. In korean.

"Ssibsaeki."

He pressed closer. And goddamn, he felt warm.

She could feel him smirk against her neck.

"I have copies." He whispered it against her hear, his hands running up her hips and settling over her stomach. Why did he have to touch? Why?

She stayed quiet, refusing to let anything else slip, the bastard already had enough on her, she wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of having more.

He kissed her neck then, just a brush of his lips over her skin, pulling her body closer to his. She wished it felt wrong—it did, in a way—but he was attractive, she couldn't deny that. She couldn't deny the reaction her body had to him, because he knew how to touch, how to kiss. So, even though she wanted to feel disgusted, she didn't.

He turned her around in a swift move—the locker clanged against her back—and she found herself looking up at him, his right hand cupping the side of her face and making them lock eyes. His other hand settled at her lower back, pressing their bodies together.

"I'm not an idiot." The dim lightning of the room made him look darker, maybe a little dangerous.

"No, you're a bastard." He smirked, and he had that look in his eyes again, the one that said he was up to no good and that he was about to do something.

"Hn." And there it was, the real him coming out—he wasn't chatty or happy in the general sense of the word. He was a dark character hiding under a "normal-heartthrob" façade.

He leaned closer, stopping when their faces would only be closer if they kissed.

"Maybe." Oh, yeah, he knew he was a bastard. The bad boy pretending to be good.

She didn't back down though. She was sure any other girl would have been blushing, shying away or throwing herself at him by now. She refused to do either of those.

So she looked into his eyes, her unusual green ones just as void of emotion as his.

"You're not getting rid of me." He made it a statement, as if he knew he was the winner no matter what.

If he thought she was just going to stand by granting his every whim so he'd keep his mouth shut, he was going to fall from his throne. And he was gonna fall hard.

"We'll see Uchiha." She gave his name the right pronunciation—the Japanese one—and watched as he tilted his head just slightly, taking in the challenge.

She would win. She would.

She wouldn't become his slave.

"We will." He smirked—that one smirk that made him look dangerous—and leaned even closer to her, pressing his lips to her. "But you'll lose."

"Or so you say." She could feel his smirk against her lips.

Could feel it as her pushed back against the locker and trapped her between the metal and his body.

Could feel it as he tilted her head back and kissed her.

Could feel it as he ran his tongue over her lower lip and slid his hand up her side.

She tried to stay still, to not kiss him back.

She managed to not move, to stay still, her hands fisted at her sides.

She kissed him back though, closing her eyes only after he'd closed his.

"_You love the way I look at you  
>While taking pleasure in the awful things you put me through"<em>

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

**.: ~ xii ~ :.**

Back in Seoul, there had been this one thing she'd loved to do after getting home—it had been home back there.

Her mother had always been off and around, fooling around with her boytoys, attending parties. She'd never been around, and when she had, it was with some random guy—after a while she'd stopped trying to know their names.

So, while the bitch was off partying, she'd been left alone in town.

She hadn't minded though, she'd actually liked it.

She'd had a nice loft all to herself. She could bring her friends home. She could sleep without having to think about the noises coming from next door or the drunken talks outside her door.

It was because she'd had freedom, friends—because she'd actually been happy from the first few weeks in Seoul—that she'd developed the habit of keeping a journal—kinda.

It wasn't something like a diary that started with _dear diary, today bla bla bla…_ No, it'd been…

She'd always liked to draw, had countless notebooks from ever since she could remember with drawings. She also developed a liking to photography ever since she was a child.

In Seoul, she'd turned her random photos and drawings into journals.

She'd always carry around a notebook, drawing what she found meaningful on it when she saw it, decorating it with photos and small lines of text when she got home.

Her friends had been the ones to suggest it as a joke, but she'd liked the idea. They'd liked it too, and she'd made them their own journals as gifts.

Her notebooks had been random colorful gatherings of the most random things—aside from the drawings, photographs and small writings, there had also been random items glued and taped to the pages, as well as random doodles, writing, drawings, etc, from her friends.

Sometimes, they'd take her notebook during class and pass it around, filling pages with randomness. She'd loved it. She still did.

They'd made her feel at home from day 1. Always there for her and never caring about appearances or status.

Ever since she'd come to LA, she'd stopped turning her notebooks into journals. It just didn't seem right to do it anymore. So she'd stopped, apart from the occasional drawing to pass the time.

As she sat through biology, her last class of the day, she found herself staring at a blank page of her notebook.

She remembered doing the exact same thing a few days before leaving Seoul. She'd been with her friends at their favorite café, chatting and goofing around as usual. But she'd had her mind elsewhere, thinking of how she'd be leaving in a few days.

Her vanilla milkshake had been sitting in front of her, ignored. Her notebook open to a blank page, like it was now, and she'd been staring at it.

That time, she'd been at the verge of tears. Now she just felt… empty.

Some part of her was aware of the class shifting and murmuring, groups being established for the group works they'd be doing after Christmas and throughout the rest of the year.

She couldn't bring herself to pay attention. Just couldn't.

"_Kwaenchanayo?"_

She blinked and looked to her right, expecting to see one of her friend leaning forward, asking her if she was okay, like that day at the café.

The hollow inside throbbed. There was no one.

She looked back at the notebook, gripping the pencil in her hand so hard the muscles in her hand hurt.

Someone sat next to her, and then someone else. They were talking to her, but she just couldn't bring herself to care and listen.

The faces of her friends were flashing in front of her eyes, and all she could do was stare at the blank paper.

Someone said something. They put a hand on her shoulder.

She swallowed and stared at the paper. Shrugging the hand off in a somewhat angry gesture, she dropped the pencil and took a pen.

It wasn't fair.

Slouching forward, she let the memories flow, her hand moving fluidly over the paper.

"Ne, kwaenchana." She mumbled the words, telling herself she was alright. She couldn't be lying more and knew whoever was besides her was asking if she'd said something. She ignored.

She missed Seoul so much.

Missed being home so bad it hurt.

5 minutes before class ended, she snapped out of her dazed state.

She glanced to her right, only to realize that now she was stuck with Naruto and the jackass for the rest of the year. Great.

Glancing down at her notebook, the faces of two of her best greeted her. She'd drawn them sitting on the steps of the park they'd walk through every day on the way to their café, one grinning like a fool and giving her a piece sign, the other standing next to him, looking as if he was ready to keep walking, still grinning though.

It was a scene she'd seen a thousand times.

The bell rang.

"Hey Sak, wanna come hang out with—" the blonde never finished his answer as she ripped the drawing from her notebook and shoved everything in her bag.

Feeling nauseous, she grabbed her things and walked to the door, ripping the drawing in as many pieces as she could while she did so.

"Hey are you—" she glared at the blond—he shut up right away.

"Leave me alone." The blond swallowed. She threw the small papers that were once her drawing in the trash.

It was all her mother's fault.

"_I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I'm close to something real  
>I wanna find something I've wanted all along<br>Somewhere I belong"_

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

**.: ~ xiii ~ :.**

When she got home—or what everyone wanted her to call home—she locked herself in her room.

For once, the luxury of a private bathroom was useful.

She cried, and cried, and cried until she couldn't feel anything anymore.

When she stared at herself in the mirror, she wondered where the girl she'd been in Seoul was, where she'd gone.

The tears never stopped.

At around 2am, she picked up the phone and stared at it for a while after putting in the number she knew by heart.

Curled up in her bed with her zebra pillow held tightly to her chest, she pressed call.

It rang twice before someone picked up.

She sniffed.

"Oppa." A blubbered whisper.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xiv ~ :.**

The next day she wore leather bracelets, flashy red jeans, black eyeliner around her eyes and a black leather jacket.

Everyone stared when she walked into school.

When Sasuke kissed her on the rooftop, she let him. For a little while.

But she wasn't in the mood to put up with him.

So she twisted his arm behind his back, told him to leave her alone.

When he only chuckled, she kicked the back of his knee, forcing him to fall on it on, and pulled his arm back some more—she knew she was hurting him. She wanted to hurt him.

"Leave. Me. Alone." She made sure he'd understand those 3 words without any confusion.

When she let him go, he glared at her, nursing his shoulder.

She felt slightly better. A little more like herself.

The girl from Seoul never let anyone mess with her, no matter what.

"_It can't be outfought _

_It can't be outdone_

_It can't be outmatched _

_It can't be outrun"_

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

**.: ~ xv ~ :.**

The first time she entered the bastards' bedroom, it was because of their holiday homework. For biology.

They—she, Naruto and Sasuke—after much nagging from the blond, decided to meet in order to work on their homework instead of simply sending each other their parts.

So, 4 days before Christmas, she found herself meeting the blond at Starbucks, and then going into the suburbs with said blond—the bastard lived in a quiet neighborhood with rows of houses that looked almost all the same, nice gardens and driveways. Not a rich neighborhood, but very nice, with trees in the sidewalks.

The house itself was normal, just all the others. Inside it was very normal as well, with moder-ish decorations, marble counters in the kitchen and nice white couches in the living room.

His room was… way too organized.

Everything had a place of its own.

It bothered her, just like him.

They had to make an exposé on coral reefs, from the fish species that lived there, to where reefs existed, their function, and every other little detail. At least it was only about the reefs in the subtropical regions of the Pacific.

Naruto settled himself belly down on the bed, doing research on his laptop—he was in charge of the habitat characteristics and where the reefs were located. Sasuke had the functions in nature, what species lived in them and why.

She was left with the history of reefs and the organization and illustration of the whole project.

After Naruto took over the bed, she stood in the doorway, not sure where to sit. The bed was a no-way-in-hell option and the bastard was sitting in the desk chair. Which left her with either the floor, or the window seat.

She chose the window seat.

While they worked, the blond blabbered away about Christmas and what they were doing on it.

Christmas trees.

Presents.

Family dinners.

She stayed quiet, sketching the work's structure on her notebook.

"What about you Sak?" her eye twitched.

"Stop calling me that." He made some kind of huffing noise.

"Ok, fine." She was sure he stuck his tongue out at her. "But anyway, whatcha doin' for Christmas?"

She paused her current sketch. What first, functions or fish species?

Yeah, functions first.

"Nothing."

The room fell silent. Naruto stared at her. Sasuke stopped typing and turned in his chair to look at her.

She stopped what she was doing and looked at them.

"What?"

Naruto was the first to react.

"How in fuck's name can you do nothing on Christmas?" he paused, sitting up on the bed and gesturing with his hands. "It's Christmas!" he exclaimed it like it should explain everything.

"So?" he just stared at her, his mouth hanging open. She looked back to her sketches.

"It's Christmas." She shrugged.

"I'm not a Christian, Naruto." And she wasn't, she was a Shinto-Buddhist person. Typical Japanese.

"That's got nothing to do with it. Come on, it's Christmas." She sighed, there he went again, expecting the word to explain everything.

"He's right you know." So of all times, the bastard had to pledge alliance with the blond on this?

"_Tch, jackass."_

"Look, Christmas is all nice and all, but it doesn't matter."

"How, tell me, how can it not matter? How?" she stared up at the blond, now standing, looking dumbfounded and outraged at the same time. She just stared at her sketches.

"Because there's no meaning to spending Christmas without family."

She cursed herself for the words she'd just said. But the blond was just too pushy, and she'd just… let it slip.

"What do you mean… your mom and—" she didn't let him finish.

"They're not my family." She knew she was being cold, but it was the truth.

"Sakura…" he was trying to find some way to comfort her. She didn't need it.

"Just drop it, will you?" she looked at him for a moment. "It doesn't matter." With a shrug, she turned back to her notebook, all focus on the work they had to do lost.

"Ok." Naruto agreed easily, and she saw him reach out to her, only to retreat his hand the next second, looking down and going back to working on research.

He didn't talk about Christmas plans for the rest of the day.

A small part of her wanted to thank him.

She said nothing, but she had the feeling he understood.

"_And the shadow of the day_

_Will embrace the world in grey_

_And the sun will set for you."_

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

**.: ~ xvi ~ :.**

The day before Christmas Eve, Naruto got sick.

That same day, her mother got home with her newest found husband boytoy and _informed_ her they'd be having a party on Christmas Eve and all throughout Christmas day.

That same day, the daughter of her mothers' boytoy kept throwing the fact that she was all alone at her—deep down it hurt, but she didn't let the bitch have the satisfaction of knowing it did.

When she left to go to Sasuke's to work on their biology project, she had no idea she'd be doing it alone with the dark haired boy.

She took the bus, her messenger bag against her hip, and her headphones over her ears.

She gave her seat to an old lady, who looked at her weird—she was wearing flashy almost navy blue jeans and a black top with Korean writing in bright letters. That and her bright pink hair made the old lady look suspicious. But she smiled and settled against the pole near the exit, listening to Linkin Park. The old lady said thank you and ended up shaking her head and mumbling about_ young people and their weird fashion sense_.

It was only when she got to Sasuke's and texted the blond that she was there, that she was told he wouldn't be joining them.

_**Sorry Saki. Sick. Won't make it today.**_

She stared at her phone, her lips curving downward.

_**What's wrong?**_

She hovered in the sidewalk in front of Sasuke's house.

_**Dunno. Stomach's killing me…**_

Biting her lip she typed her reply, getting worried. A second later, her phone buzzed again.

_**I'll be fine. :D T'was probably just something I ate…**_

She frowned and typed her reply to that. Nothing he ate ever got him sick. At least nothing so far.

_**Thanks Saki. :D Promise I'll take you out for ice cream tomorrow!**_

A small smile curved at her lips at that. Only that doofus could think of ice cream while having an upset stomach. She was still worried though—she admited only to herself that the blond had warmed up to her. Rather, she'd warmed to him.

With a sigh—her day just kept on getting better—she walked up the path to the bastards' front door.

She knocked twice and waited a few seconds before the door opened.

"Wow, someone got lost at the cotton candy factory." She raised a brow. Who the hell was this?

The guy that opened the door looked around 20 and had light brown hair and brown eyes—not asian. He was looking her up and down too.

"Gotta say though, I'd totally take you out!" she stared at the guy, brow raised. And trying very very hard not to say anything.

"Back off Dick." Ah! That would be the bastard.

The guy turned halfway to the stairs, glaring at the dark haired boy coming down.

"It's Rick!" Sasuke shrugged.

"Same thing." He said it with a straight face too. She smirked.

"Ignore him." He told her that as he closed the front door behind her. She shrugged.

"Hey! I was talking to the lady, thank you very much!" that would be outraged Rick.

"Who is this retard anyway?" Sasuke shrugged while Rick stood there, gaping at her.

"Cousin."

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xvii ~ :.**

Once they were in Sasuke's room—D-Rick had been left gaping at the bottom of the stairs—they stayed silent, safe for the here or there comment about their biology assignment.

After a while though, he did something that had her staring at him with a raised brow. He threw himself into the bed so he was lying down facing the ceiling.

"Really?" he peered at her from under his forearm, the _what?_ implicit in his look. She twirled in his desk chair.

"Biology, remember?" she waved the sheets of paper in front of her. He groaned.

"Shut up."

"Go to hell." A glare. Sakura: one. Sasuke: zero.

"You're annoying." She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, 'cause your mr. sunshine." Another groan.

Seeing that he wasn't getting up anytime soon, she threw the file of research they'd gathered at his chest. He grunted, but didn't even bother getting the file off of him.

"Tch." Shaking her head, she faced his laptop on his desk.

With nothing better to do, she started snooping—hey, maybe she'd find that damn file so she could get him off her back for good.

5 deleted files, a few comments on his facebook wall and 2 snapshots later, she was fiddling with the keyboard, bored out of her mind. Why did he have 5 copies, all with different names, of that thing anyway?

Well, she didn't care, she just hoped there wouldn't be another one left—or so she hoped.

With a sigh, she ignored the computer in front of her and twirled the chair so she was facing the Uchiha lazing around in the bed.

He had one of his arms over his eyes, the files still over his chest. His jeans were low on his hips—he wore grey boxers—while his dark blue t-shirt had slid up. She could see a small strip of pale skin of his stomach, his hipbones, the v-shape they formed.

She may have liked him if he wasn't such a bastard.

Tough there was something about him, something familiar, as if he reminded her of someone, but she couldn't pinpoint who or why.

Reaching into her bag, she took out her digital camera and, in ninja-mode, took a photo of him—she blamed his good looks on genetics.

Setting the camera back in her bag, she sighed.

Why was he going out of way to mess with her?

"Why me?" he peered at her front under his arm, his dark eyes boring into her.

She just stared back, oddly at ease.

Setting the files beside him on the bed, he sat up, his eyes smoldering.

"Why not?" he smirked—oh, bad boy came out to play.

"That's not a reason." She told him flatly, wanting a real answer. He shrugged and sat at the edge of the bed, facing her.

They stared at each other for a while, neither backing down, until he pulled the desk chair she was sitting on closer to the bed. He didn't say anything, just brought her closer.

There a knock at the door. It went unnoticed.

He touched her cheek, made her lean closer until their noses almost touched.

Another knock, the door opened.

He put a hand on her thigh.

Rick entered the room.

"Hey dude, your dad's cal—" he never got to finish his sentence.

"You're different." She blinked at him, feeling his lips brush against hers as he got up and walked away.

She twirled in her chair, watching him go while pushing his cousin out of the room.

"Huh?"

**.: ~ TBC ~ :.**

* * *

><p>.<p>

**Songs used:**

The Catalyst

Points of Authority

Shadow of the day

Breaking the Habit

Somewhere I Belong

.

Hope you liked it everyone!

Please leave me a review, I really love knowing what you guys think!

.

_For those of you who got confused with the Korean..._

**Glossary:**

Kwaenchanayo? - Are you okay?

Ne, kwaenchana. - Yeah, I'm okay.

Ssibsaeki - Fucking bastard.

Oppa - Literally older brother. Used by girl to call older boys.

.

Kissed & Hugs

**-Azure Serenity**


	4. Nobody's Listening

Hi everyone!

A little later & shorter than last time, but here's the new chapter!

.

On another note, here goes a shoutout to my lovely reviewers Saiyuri Haruno, monsterchibi, Girlalicious, Confuzzled & blondebarbievamp!

I'm really happy with your reviews guys! :D

**Answers!**

**To everyone:** I'm really glad you guys like this! :]

**To Girlalicious:** Glad you liked it so much you spazzed out :P I love asian dramas too - K&J dramas FTW ! :D

**To Confuzzled:** Hehe, it's a secret :P but... well, all I can say is it's not exactly a picture - more like a video...

**To blondebarbievamp:** Oh eme gee, you're right, I did use Numb on ch.1, thanks for noticing!

.

**A.N. **I do not own Naruto or its characters, nor do I own Linkin Park or their songs. This plot, it's plot and everything related to it, was made through my imagination, so please do not plagiarize.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**The sentence that started it all: **In which Sakura... goes to the Garden.

**Details:** (prompts)

AU

High School

Hentai level 5 !

Written while listening to Linkin Park

**_Anyway...  
><em>**

* * *

><p><strong><em>.<em>**

**Wisteria Blues  
><strong>

**Summary: **Books were her friends, charcoal & ink her allies, music her escape and photography her outlet. So... what was he?

**_._**

* * *

><p>.<p>

**Part IV** - Nobody's Listening

.

**.: ~ xviii ~ :.**

Naruto was someone that didn't like surprises. He pretended he did—and on birthdays he enjoyed them—but in general, he'd rather not be surprised.

Getting surprised by something so it changed his opinion of that something—or someone—completely… he didn't like it one bit. And usually, when something, or someone, surprised him, it was always for the worse.

The surprise he got on Christmas afternoon changed his opinion on the matter completely.

It was unexpected and he was sure he wasn't meant to witness it. But he did. And it blew his mind completely.

It was amazing. Awesome. Absolutely wonderful.

At first he'd thought it was something else entirely. He'd almost panicked.

But then it'd turned into… something surprising. And he'd loved it.

Every time he was allowed to glimpse at who she really was, he liked her more and more. Because no matter how much she wanted to isolate herself from everyone else, she was fascinating.

From the amazing skill she had at drawing, to what he'd witnessed.

She captivated him.

She was unique, and that uniqueness made him fall in love with her a little more every time he saw her.

That's why he was going to keep her secret all to himself. Because she was his Saki.

* * *

><p><strong>.<strong>

**.: ~ xix ~ :.**

The first day of school after vacation was always easier than the first day of the year.

At least after you'd spent the time before vacation already in that certain school, when you came back after, everyone was already used to you. They'd probably still stare and murmur, but it wasn't so annoying anymore.

For some reason, the first day of school after Christmas was… very annoying. At least some part of it was.

It was all going great—well, normal, until she decided to ditch social studies.

The rain kept falling since the previous day—dark, grey, cloudy and wet were good words to characterize the weather—so she couldn't go to the roof, where she usually went.

She found refuge in an empty classroom used for storage with no door and a wall with a bunch of windows and window seats. She settled in the farthest one from the doorless doorway, in a dark corner, her bag in front of her.

As she stared outside, she thought of home. It would be snowing in Seoul, still cloudy, but no rain.

Snowball fights, building animals with snow and just walking through the park with a transparent umbrella. With her friends.

Outside, the rain fell hard against the windows, creating that unique melody that only rain could make.

She leaned her face against the cold glass and sighed, lost in memories and what-ifs.

She wanted to go back.

As if from a distance, she could hear footsteps, but it was only when she felt warmth in her arm that she realized there was someone next to her.

She glanced up, the feeling of utter loneliness eating her up inside, only to see Sasuke staring down at her. The warmth in her arm was his hand.

He didn't say anything, just looked down at her, as if analyzing her. She stared back.

His skin was a pale caramel shade, flawless. His hair was dark ebony falling in front of his eyes and spiked at the back of his head. His eyes almond shaped, exotic, but not completely asian. A little wider. Black onyx in color, devoid of emotion except for some kind of depraved curiosity.

He liked seeing _into_ other people a little too much for her liking.

"Stop staring." Her voice came out lower than she intended as she leaned back into the window, going back to staring outside. Lonely. She felt lonely. Completely alone.

His hand was gone the moment she said the words—his compliance was suspicious—but he didn't leave.

"Don't you have class?" He had that _I-know-better_ tone going on. She didn't like it. Couldn't he just leave her alone?

"Don't you?" she heard him let out a noncommittal sound at her comeback.

What was he doing here anyway?

"_Is he stalking me now? Tch, that'd be just great. Not."_

She couldn't bring herself to look at him though. She felt too heavy. Too drained.

She was hungry too. Had she eaten anything today? She couldn't remember.

He was hovering over her now. Reluctant about something.

And then his fingertips were lightly brushing over her cheeks. Softly. If she hadn't known he was there, she would've thought she was imagining things.

She moved only her eyes to look at up at him. He had a strange look in his eyes. As if he didn't know what to do. And that never happened, he always had something up his sleeve.

"What?" her voice wasn't cooperating today. It just wouldn't come louder than a whisper. She felt betrayed by her own body.

His lips tilted downward the littlest bit, and she knew at that moment something was wrong. Her lips parted to say something.

He beat her to it.

"…you're crying." She couldn't even bring herself to react to his words. Was she really crying?

Her hand lifted to her face, knuckles brushing against his fingertips. She felt something wet.

She felt herself falling even deeper into the metaphorical pit at that realization.

He took her hand with his free one, holding her fingers between his. The fingertips of his right hand hovered over her skin, running over the trails of tears that seemed to have created a path down her cheeks.

A moment passed. Oh-so-softly, his fingers brushed under her eyes, taking the tears away.

"Why…?" she wasn't sure what she was asking, _why do you care_ maybe. She wasn't sure.

It didn't really matter, he didn't answer anyway. Just stayed quiet, his dark eyes staring into her green ones. Dull green now. So dull.

He cupped her check, running his thumb under her eye.

"You shouldn't try to copy the weather." He said that after a while, that strange, awkward look still in his eyes. But…

He'd made a joke.

She cracked a week smile and rolled her eyes.

"I'll copy whatever I want." He pinched her cheek just enough to feel the pressure. She swatted his hand away.

"Lame."

"Shut up."

A pause. From both of them.

She got up, closer to his body than she intended, but at that moment, the faint warmth she could feel from him felt nice.

She sighed.

"Myungchunyi." She called him silly, because he was being silly. The best part was that he didn't even understand what she'd called him. He just tilted his head, curiosity in his eyes.

With another sigh, she smiled up at him and let her fingers trace his jaw and brush across his cheek.

Leaning towards him, she tilted her head and—she was sure he was expecting something else—kissed his cheek.

"Komawoyo."

"_And when you're feeling empty  
>Keep me in your memory<br>Leave out all the rest"_

* * *

><p><strong><em>.<em>**

**.: ~ xx ~ :.**

Sometimes she wondered why her life was so messed up. Why everything was so twisted.

Why couldn't she have a normal family?

Why couldn't she have a home?

Why couldn't she have lived all her life in the same city?

But then, the more she thought about it, the more it hurt. So she'd decided to not think about it.

Instead, she thought about how, if her life wasn't so messed up, she would have never gone to Seoul and never met her friends there.

She thought of how, even if she'd been all alone, she'd had the chance to visit Paris and Rome—London she hadn't liked so much, it rained too much, was too cold.

Instead of thinking about the fucked up relationship—or lack thereof—she had with her mother, she thought of the people she'd come to love, the ones that had become her family.

As she walked through the school's main hallway after her last class, she thought of Los Angeles.

The city sucked, just in her opinion (to everyone else it was great). The people were way too meddling and snobbish, and she had no one.

And yet…

Two people stood out. Three if she was being honest. One of those for the worst.

There was Naruto, who was a complete doofus. He was beyond obnoxious. Too loud and always touchy-feely with everyone. Good natured and with a good heart.

Sasuke seemed to be the complete opposite. He was a dark character who did as he pleased and never seemed to follow the basic rules of courtesy. Not forgetting he was blackmailing her—well, _kinda_—and had a major superiority complex. But then, sometimes… it was like he was someone else entirely and actually had a heart—deep _deep __**deep**_ down.

And then there was the daughter of her mothers' new boytoy, Karin.

They were the same age, but the bitchy red-head went to a private school, whereas she'd refused to go anywhere that had private or pricy attached to its name and rep.

Karin was a bitch. One of those that think they're better, wear short skirts, show too much cleavage and like to belittle everyone. At 'home' the bitchy red-head kept talking trash about Seoul and about how _poor Sakura was all alone_.

Most days she could tolerate her. Most days. The other days, she avoided her at all costs so she wouldn't beat the crap out of her.

The first day of school after Christmas break was one of those days.

After the incident during her Ditch-Class period, she'd avoided the dark haired idiot as well as she could without being conspicuous about it. She'd been avoiding Karin since the previous day.

The fact that Sasuke didn't seem to be into harassing her helped.

But as she exited the front doors of the school, Sasuke harassing her seemed like the best thing in the world.

There, parked right in front of the school, was a black Mercedes. And Karin was in the backseat.

"_No, no, no, no, not today."_

She hovered at the doors, everyone else walking past her. Her day had just gone from bad to being fucking horrible. Because the Mercedes with the driver meant the boytoy had sent it.

Karin looked out the window and stared right at her, that provocative look in her eyes.

She opened her umbrella and decided to ignore.

She walked down the front steps, past the garden and into the sidewalk.

It wasn't just the bitch and the driver after all. The boytoy was there too. And he was out of the car with a black umbrella the moment she stepped into the sidewalk.

"Get in." She stopped. And stared. "Now."

"I don't think so." She'd meant to say a simple _no_, but that did the job just as well.

Boytoy walked closer, trying to be intimidating. She wouldn't be going though. She refused. Just no.

"You will be coming." Oh, he was pulling the snotty tone now.

She ignored and walked away from him. She managed to walk until she was a few steps in front of the Mecedes before boytoy grabbed her arm. He was a brute about it too.

"Get in—" if he had anything else to say, it was cut short as a shiny classic Dodge Charger pulled up just in front of the fancy Mercedes.

On the wrong side of the road, it was probably a 1968 model. A classic. A pretty nice one too. Very well kept.

The driver window opened. And then the person she'd been avoiding popped his head out.

"Get in." he wasn't looking at her though, he was glaring at boytoy.

"And who the hell are you?" the teen just raised a brow, a dark look in his eyes. _He_ actually looked intimidating.

"They're waiting for us downtown." She had no idea what he was talking about, but she got the hint. He was giving her an out.

Karin was glaring at her, she could feel it.

"Right." She freed her arm from arrogant boytoy. Eyes downcast.

She walked closer to the shiny antique car, but boytoy had to butt in again.

"You _will_ get into this car." But Sasuke—ignoring boytoy—spoke again.

"I don't have all day." She smiled lightly, he was being _awfully nice_ today.

She went with him anyway. As she walked towards the passenger side and entered the car, she ignored the threats coming from her mother's boytoy.

The door closed. She slid the wet umbrella between the door and the seat.

Neither said anything as he drove off.

"_When you've suffered enough  
>And your spirit is breaking<br>You're growing desperate from the fight"_

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><p><strong><em>.<em>**

**.: ~ xxi ~ :.**

Until 6pm or so, they sat in a corner booth at Starbucks. The window let them see the outside world, but the soft music inside droned out the sound of rain hitting glass and cars.

They didn't really speak, except at the counter. She seemed to be doomed to have to deal with Julie, the annoying waitress.

So… she'd _kinda_ thrown another gay joke.

"You know, he may flirt with you and pretend he likes you—"the girl had looked outraged, because the flirting had been interrupted as Sakura leaned into the counter "—but that's all a front." She'd shrugged, holding the grin inside as the girl gaped at her, ready to say something. "He just wants to make my brother jealous. You know how it goes, so it gets all hot and steamy in the bedroom."

At that point Sasuke had been glaring murder at her, but she'd continued her tale, enjoying the girls' squirming and red face.

"I swear, sometimes I need to just turn the volume on my iPod as loud as it goes so I don't have to hear what goes on next door." She'd made a face and turned to Sasuke. Rolled her eyes. "And no need to be all embarrassed, it's no secret _Sasu-cakes_." She turned back to the girl. "That's what my brother calls him." She'd leaned closer, keeping the conspiracy tone. "They get all gushy with the pet names. You wouldn't believe."

She'd laughed when Sasuke dragged towards the end of the counter to wait for their drinks with a hissed _"Enough."_

Julie had been left all red-faced, squirming and flabbergasted, but she'd throw one last comment in. "See, he gets all shy. Isn't it adorable?"

After that though, he'd glared for a while as she'd laughed it off at his expanse.

"Aww, come on Sasuke, I know you love my brother, no need to hold it in." A murderous glare.

"Fuck you." And she'd burst out laughing again.

And just like that, the tension from earlier vanished.

She didn't get him. At all.

First he harassed, blackmailed and got on her nerves.

And then, on very rare occasions like earlier and at the moment, it was as if he actually cared.

She grinned behind her Chai Tea Latte cup, looking at him.

He sat in front of her, head turned to the left, looking outside, one hand around his Cappuccino cup on the table, the other not visible under it.

He looked charismatic. And cute.

"What?" he turned to her.

She just shook her head and took a sip of her drink.

"Tch, just drink your Latte." He said that and then took a sip of his coffee based drink.

She just grinned some more, but took another sip like he'd told her to.

If he wasn't blackmailing her—kinda—and didn't harass her so much, she could probably actually like him.

"_Sometimes I wonder why this is happening  
>It's like nothing I can do would distract me"<em>

**.: ~ TBC ~ :.**

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><p>.<p>

**Songs used:**

Leave out all the rest

The messenger

Figure .09

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Hope you liked it everyone!

I really love knowing what you guys think!

_**So...** Leave a review please!_

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_For those of you who got confused with the Korean..._

**Glossary:**

Myungchunyi – Silly

Komawoyo – Thank you (informal, said only to friends, older people you're friends with, etc)

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Kissed & Hugs

**-Azure Serenity**


	5. High Voltage

To all my dear readers, I sincerely apologize for the lateness, I really hate not updating for such a long while...

As far as reasons go, I'll just say that when I was finishing this chapter last month, my laptop decided to be funny and deleted half my chapter so... yeah, that led to a major unmotivation blast and... well, hence the lateness, because when this happens I feel really sad and bla bla bla...

You guys don't really care about that, so, here's the new chapter that I hope you'll enjoy!

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**Shoutout **to the following reviewers here: black-red-rose-girl, Saiyuri Haruno, xXNinjaXGalaxyXx and Girlalicious !

Thanks for the support guys, I really enjoy it and it drives me to try really hard to write the best I can!

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Sidenote here: What is Sasuke blackmailing her with indeed... All I can say is that it's a video.

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**A.N. **I do not own Naruto or its characters, nor do I own Linkin Park or their songs. This plot, it's plot and everything related to it, was made through my imagination, so please do not plagiarize.

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><p>.<p>

**The sentence that started it all: **In which Sakura... goes to the Garden.

**Details:** (prompts)

AU

High School

Hentai level 5 !

[_Written while listening to Linkin Park_] I cheated, I'm listening to other things now lol

**_Anyway..._**

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><p><strong>.<strong>

**Wisteria Blues  
><strong>

**Summary: **Books were her friends, charcoal & ink her allies, music her escape and photography her outlet. So... what was he?

**.**

* * *

><p><strong>.<strong>

**Part V - **High Voltage

.

**.: ~ xxii ~ :.**

Sasuke's car was a classic.

A 1968—or from around those years, definitely from before 1980—Dodge Changer.

Black, shiny and very well kept. Had he restored it himself or bought it as it was? She'd need to do some digging to figure it out.

Usually she didn't like classics. She liked the _Fast & Furious_ modern type cars better. They had power, were fast and honestly, she liked the aesthetics. And the graffiti-like paintjobs, but that was beside the point.

Sasuke's car seemed to escape her modern _Tokyo drift_ standard for cars.

But she liked his car. She did.

It surprised her. But she liked it.

Liked how the paintjob was flawless, how the rims were a perfect silver, how the interior was all black leather. Vintage.

For some reason, she especially liked the faint smell of leather as she sat on the passenger seat.

The rain was unrelenting, sparing no one. It fell hard and showed no sign of stopping any time soon.

Sasuke drove through the heavy rain with ease, hands on the leather steering wheel, his left leaving it occasionally to shift gears. He was a good driver—not that she'd _**ever**_ admit it to him.

But while he drove her home—home being a mere figure of speech—she found herself relaxing. And that hadn't happened in months.

All day, he'd been… so nice to her. Considerate. He'd never been any of those before. She didn't know how to react to it.

She was used to everything bad about people every time she was somewhere new. The good side… she still didn't know how to react to it, even though she'd made friends in Seoul.

The nice and pleasant some people gave her—very very few—was something she craved. But she feared it too, because as she grew up the one thing she'd been faced with were people trying to use her.

Sasuke was a mystery.

He obviously didn't really care about her. He was blackmailing her after all.

But…

In that empty classroom. And then when school had ended.

He'd given her an out from having to face boytoy and the bitch when he didn't have to. At all.

She sighed and glanced at him. He was focused on the road.

He was strange. So strange.

He was really good looking too. Though sometimes he didn't seem to have a sense of style. She needed to give him some tips about that—dear Buddha, what the hell was she thinking? Fashion tips? To her nemesis?

With another sigh—as she kicked herself in the ass mentally—she turned back to looking out her window.

Why did he have to be such a bastard anyway? She wouldn't have to fight him off so much if he wasn't. Buddha knew how hard it was to do it sometimes. Because the boy knew how to kiss. And that did **not** make her job any easier.

It just wasn't fair in her opinion. He shouldn't be so good looking and he shouldn't be such a good kisser.

He shouldn't be such a bastard either. Or not have moments when he decided to be sweet.

Her brain did a pause. Why was she thinking about him again?

Oh, right! Because he'd been nice to her all day.

She sighed a third time. She might as well stop thinking about it, he was mystery not easily solved.

When he stopped in front of the building she lived in, she looked at it for a moment before grasping her umbrella. The skyscraper building seemed imposing. It scared her.

He didn't say anything. She didn't either.

She didn't want to enter the building on the other side of the street, she wanted to stay in his car forever. Anything but going inside.

Swallowing the knot that was suddenly in her throat, she opened the door and took a step into the rain, under her umbrella.

She wished her best friend was there. The one girl that always knew what to say, what to do.

Jumping over the puddle near the sidewalk and walking around the car seemed like a walk towards doom. She wanted to be back inside the car, anywhere, except there.

If wishes came true she'd be back in Seoul, happy and carefree.

She stopped near his window, already open. His dark eyes looked up at hers. She took a moment to gather words.

Her brain drew a blank.

A car pulled up behind her, on the other lane.

She leaned down until she was perched on the window, face to face with him.

"Komawo." She leaned in a little more and kissed his cheek. A soft smile curved her lips when she pulled back. Maybe he was a jackass every other day, but today he'd been nice. She'd needed it.

"That means thank you." He had that same strange look in his eyes. The awkward one she'd seen in the empty classroom. It made him look incredibly adorable.

The rain picked up pace, the sound it made against her umbrella harsher than moments before. The world seemed to be crashing over her.

His eyes were dark—so, so dark, typical asian—unreadable and maybe a little dangerous. He never looked away from her odd green ones—so not asian, an anomaly—as she started leaning away. She had to leave, she couldn't just stop time.

He shifted in his seat, his left hand coming up. And suddenly the world seemed to be going in slow-motion.

It seemed like everything was upside down today.

She was halfway done with straightening up, when his hand cupped her cheek.

She blinked.

His thumb brushed just under her right eye.

Her free hand gripped the car door.

Silence.

The wind made her bangs fly in front of her eyes. The bottom of her jeans was getting soaked.

"Don't copy the weather." He looked so serious as he said that.

She closed her eyes and leaned into his hand.

She didn't even care about why he was being nice to her anymore.

His fingers felt warm when she wrapped her free hand around his.

A kiss to his palm.

She held his hand for just a moment and then let go.

The moment she took a step away from the black classic car, she missed the warmth of his hand against her skin.

She couldn't breathe.

"Komawo." She bowed as she said that—not sure he heard her—because the Korean/Japanese costume was ingrained in her.

She didn't dare to look up to see his reaction, she just turned and walked across the street.

"_I don't know how I got this way  
>I know it's not alright.<br>So I'm breaking the habit,  
>I'm breaking the habit"<em>

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

**.: ~ xxiii ~ :.**

When she looked up, on the sidewalk in front of the building she lived in, four things registered in her brain.

The death glare Karin was giving her from the building doors.

The sound of Sasuke's car driving away.

As she walked past Karin as if the red-haired snob wasn't even there, the gut wrenching urge to cry.

But above all, as she closed her umbrella once past the glass doors, the realization that—

The bastard was her friend.

At least _kinda_.

**.: ~ xxiv ~ :.**

Ever since she was a child, Karin had always gotten what she wanted. Always.

She'd realized the power of her looks from a young age, so she'd made use of it every time she wanted something.

At age 6, she'd wanted a pony. Her father had been against the idea, but she'd screamed and trashed and cried so hard and so loud at one of his parties, that'd he'd relented only after 10 minutes of her show. He'd gotten her a white pony, with braids and ribbons, just like she'd wanted.

(Two weeks later, she'd marched into her fathers' office, looking angelical in her white summer dress, and told him to _"get rid of it, it's boring."_.)

When she'd turned 11, she'd wanted her birthday party to be in Paris. With her friends—so she could show off. Her father had said no. All it took to convince him was to climb up to the roof and cry her lungs out.

At age 14 she'd wanted a pink human sized doll house. She'd gotten it after 1 week of tantrums.

At 16 it had been the shoe closet. It only took 2 days of cries.

She'd always attended the best schools money could pay, and she'd always been the queen. Always. She'd also always gotten everyone around her to do everything she wanted. To get her everything she asked.

Now, at 17, she wanted a boy.

She wanted Sasuke.

And she would **not** tolerate having the pink haired bitch in her way.

That was inadmissible.

She had always gotten what she wanted. It wouldn't stop now.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xxv ~ :.**

The next day, everything was back to normal.

Well, except for the '_grounding'_ she'd gotten after getting home.

She'd been treated of ungrateful, rebellious, anarchist, punk—nothing unusual there. When Karin'd decided to ass in—because butt in just didn't cut it anymore—she'd been treated of whore and slut. Apparently, she was sleeping with every available guy, hence why she hadn't gotten in the stupid car when they'd gone to get her at school.

She ignored it all, half-listening with a blank look.

She didn't even dignify them with an answer. They weren't worth it.

Not one bit.

She just walked up the stairs, waving away the curfews and _you're grouded_'s.

Yeah, the next day everything was back to normal.

Sasuke was back to bastard. Back to harassing and blackmailing—_kinda_.

Her mother was back to greedy bitch.

Boytoy was back to pompous asshole.

And Karin was back to sluttish snob.

Hence why she tried to avoid them all.

It worked for the most part.

Avoiding the bitch, the snob and the boytoy was easy. Avoiding Sasuke—not so easy.

"_You crossed the line  
>Wrapped up inside your<br>Lies  
>You hide behind<br>Lies"_

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><p><em>.<em>

**.: ~ xxvi ~ :.**

Back in Seoul, she'd had friends.

Granted, she could count them by the fingers of her hands, but they were her friends.

Her close friends were exactly four. Not even a full hand. And only one of them a girl.

She never really got along with girls. For some reason she just… didn't fit in with them. She felt much more at ease around boys.

Apart from those four, there were five more.

All in all, they were her family. And her family, herself included, was made of ten people.

It was only in Seoul that she got to know what it was like to have a family. It was only there that she got to know what having a mother felt like.

Konan was a very nice woman she'd met through one of her friends.

The woman was everything one would expect from a mother. And her husband everything one would expect from a father—though she just guessed it with him, since she'd never really had a father.

It was mid-January when she found herself thinking about them. Konan and Nagato. And in consequence Yahiko.

Those three were inseparable, always together. The eternal best friends since childhood.

And it just so happened that Konan and Yahiko had their birthdays on the same day.

She sighed and looked around.

What was she doing at the mall anyway?

Oh, right. She'd been kinda kidnapped—again—by Naruto and the bastard.

February 20th. It was still over a month away, but she really wanted to find a present for them.

"Saki!" he drawled out her nickname while waving a hand in front of her face. She grabbed the blonds' hand and shoved it away.

"What?" he grinned.

"You seemed really out of it is all." He gave her a sheepish grin. "Let's go get something to eat!" he exclaimed it and the next thing she knew he had his arm around her shoulders and was dragging her wherever it was he was going.

She shoved at him.

"Hands off blondy." He just laughed.

Why did she hang out with these two anyway?

Another sigh.

When they reached the food, beverages & candy floor, Naruto ran off to go get his favorite foods and snacks. She rolled her eyes, the boy could eat and eat and not burst or get fat.

And while she was still lost in birthday presents for her pseudo-relatives, Sasuke dragged her to the line at MacDonald's. He wasn't pushing boundaries either.

Oh wait.

He was.

While they stood in the seemingly unmoving gigantic line, he let his hand trail over her waist, slipping it inside her t-shirt.

"And you're not pushing it or anything." She shot him a look. He smirked. Arrogant bastard.

His eyes were dark and amused when he tilted his head to look at her.

"'Cause you don't like it or anything." She rolled her eyes.

"Fuck you." His look couldn't be good, especially when the guy on the row next to them was blatantly staring.

"Easy babe, we're in public." She gave him a flat look.

"Jiog ena kara." Now he was the one with a look. _"You lose."_ She smirked.

The next second she was pressed into his chest, both his hands on her lower back. Under her tee.

She looked up at him. He was seriously testing her patience. A raised brow, he smirked.

A step back—because now she was facing him, her back to the counters in front of the crowd. And then she could feel his breath on the shell of her ear.

"You can't always save yourself with the Korean." She faked a gasp.

"Oh no, and here I thought I was so smart." He gave her a glare. Her time to smirk. "Get a dictionary, take some classes, I don't care."

"It'll be pointless once I understand." She scoffed.

"Sure, sure." She pushed away from him, now amused at his piss poor attempt at trying to get what she'd told him in Korean.

He grabbed her wrist and forced her to turn back to face him. The next second his lips were on hers. She was back to being pressed against him and he was kissing her, his hands on her back again.

Damn it, it just wasn't fair. He shouldn't be allowed to be such a good kisser.

She gripped his stupid Star Wars t-shirt when one of his hands settled on the back of her head. She almost pulled away from him, but then the girls on the other line started talking.

"_Oh yeah?"_ She'd show them the finger if she felt like bothering with brainless bimbos. _"Watch this."_ Instead, she pulled him closer.

He broke the kiss for a second, his breath warm against her lips, his eyes surprised and amused. And something else she refused to acknowledge.

"Shut up." She hissed the word. He chuckled.

She pulled him as close as she could and reached up—why did he have to be taller than her anyway?—kissing him again. All the while, she let one of her hands tangle in his hair, her other slipping inside his t-shirt and settling between his shoulder blades.

It really wasn't fair how good it felt kissing him.

His skin was warm under her fingers, his mouth hot against hers.

"_Stop blackmailing me and we'll get somewhere._"

It was so easy to just forget everything that made her life a living hell in moments like these, when his kisses blew her mind and his hand felt so good on her skin.

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_**Picture of the week:**_ _Uchiha heartthrob caught making out with the pink haired asian new girl at the MacDonald's line. Preppy girls disapprove of kissing fest._

_Stand in line, hot & steamy is on the menu!_

_._

_**Warning:**__ Distribute at own risk. Consequences may include a pissed off Uchiha and a pink haired girl hunting you for revenge._

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><p><strong>.<strong>

**.: ~ xxvii ~ :.**

One of the few things she liked about LA—besides Starbucks—was the fact that there were MacDonald's everywhere. Just like in Seoul—though back there, there hadn't been so many.

At least this one thing she could still do, the same way she'd done with her friend. Eat junk food.

Taking a crispy fry to her mouth, holding her burger in her other hand, she went back to thinking about presents. She really needed to find something for Konan and Yahiko. They were family after all.

With a sigh, she glanced around and contained a groan.

Figures she'd get conned into sitting against a wall. With a moron on each side. And some brainless bimbos right in front of her.

She rolled her eyes. If she wanted to go to the bathroom, she'd have to ask _pretty please_.

"_Idiot morons."_

She ate a few more fries and then took a bite of her burger. One of the specials, because those were actually big and not kiddy sized.

Oh, and they were yummy too.

She licked her lips after another bite and noticed the boys staring.

At least Sasuke was doing a pretty good job and not being conspicuous about it—he was looking at her from beneath his lashes—but Naruto was blatantly staring.

She raised a brow. Chewed. Swallowed.

"What?" to her amusement, the blond fumbled with his chopsticks—he was eating ramen—and started blushing, his cheeks turning red.

He swallowed, but didn't say anything.

She paused before taking another bite of her burger, directing her gaze to the other moron cornering her for a second.

"I like junk food, get over it." And she was back to eating to her heart's desire. And thinking about presents.

For Konan, maybe something fashion related.

"_An unique hairpin maybe?"_ she poked her fries with another fry while chewing on her burger.

She'd just wrapped her lips around the half burger she had left when her phone started vibrating in her pocket.

Holding the yummy treat in her mouth, she took her clean hand—because the other one had salt from the fries—to her pocket and, reaching inside, took out her cell phone.

The number flashing on the screen was unfamiliar, with a country code. She frowned.

And then realization hit her, and she grinned—as best as she could with a burger in her mouth.

The country code was from South Korea.

"_This is not the end,_

_This is not the beginning"_

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><p><em>.<em>

**.: ~ xxviii ~ :.**

There wasn't much that caught Sasuke's interest.

One of those few things was surfing—he liked the freedom he felt while riding a wave.

His car was another, because the classic style was unique and smooth.

These things held his interest even when he didn't feel like surfing or driving.

Girls, on the other hand, rarely caught his interest, and when they did, it usually only lasted so long. They were too clingy and annoying to catch his interest for long periods of time. He usually got them, kissed them, sometimes slept with them, but never beyond that.

He'd never had a girlfriend for more than 3 weeks—because he didn't want one. Girls bored him, their interests were stupid and their obsession with looks, nails and gossip was beyond annoying.

Well, all girls were like that until Sakura.

She was the Asian new girl who didn't mingle with anyone, especially not with girls. She stayed away from everyone and tried to pass unnoticed. Which was paradoxical considering her odd pink dyed hair. If you wanted to go unnoticed why dye your hair pink?

But that wasn't what caught his interest, what did was the fact that she never once gave him a second glance like all the other girls did. When she happened to be looking at him, it was just because her eyes had travelled that way, not because she had an interest in him.

She didn't seem to have an interest in anything really.

When he approached her, because really, what girl didn't have an interest in him, she brushed him off as if he wasn't remotely interesting or good-looking. That had been a blow to his ego, so he'd kept trying.

It was entertaining to see her get pissed off—since he couldn't get her interest, he at least managed to get under her skin, and she hated it. But he loved it. She was interesting and amusing all at once.

She could really throw a punch too—he didn't like that one bit, especially not the well placed kicks.

But it was a small price to pay.

And then he'd caught her on camera, and that was priceless.

She couldn't brush him off anymore, because if she did, she'd end up on youtube.

So he got closer and closer, and just because he felt like it, he kissed her, and it felt nice. Exciting, exhilarating. Especially when she kissed him back even though she didn't want to.

But he wasn't forcing her to do anything she didn't want to—and really, even if he was _kinda_ blackmailing her, he had manners, he'd never force a woman to do anything she didn't want to. He may have been a bastard, but he wasn't a creep.

She wasn't… like anyone he'd ever crossed paths with, and the more he had her around, the more he got to see just how different she was.

The more he had her around, the more he noticed small things about her. Small glimpses of who she really was.

She was angry at the world—no, not at the world, she was angry at her mother, for reasons he still didn't know.

She missed Seoul. Her friends. Her only friends.

And she wasn't as strong as she made herself seem.

Her eyes were green—odd considering her fully Asian features—but dull. She had no shine in them, as if she'd died inside.

She didn't really wear makeup—except eyeliner every once in a while—and she had a very unique sense of fashion. Nothing like the other girls, she loved her jeans too much.

There was something else he'd come to know about her, even though he was sure she probably denied it even to herself. She kept pushing everyone away, but she actually craved human contact. She craved friends.

She closed herself off to the world, because she trusted no one.

She was a hard person to get close to.

She was a very… different girl.

But albeit all of that, the more he had her around, the more he liked having her around.

She was the kind of girl with whom you could talk sports, cars and video games with.

She also ate whatever she wanted without caring if it was junk food or not. If she liked it, she didn't deprive herself.

At the moment, as he watched her let her burger hang from her mouth to reach down to her phone, he found himself amused.

She probably didn't know it, but she looked cute. And entertaining.

The moment her eyes landed on the screen of her phone, everything changed.

"_Don't want to reach for me do you_

_I mean nothing to you_

_The little things give you away"_

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><p><em>.<em>

**.: ~ xxix ~ :.**

Her eyes seemed to shine as she grinned—or tried to, while still having her burger in her mouth.

In a rush, she pressed accept and took her phone to her ear. With her other hand, she ripped the burger away from her mouth after biting into it.

Chewing twice, she spoke. "Yob—"a quick pause as she swallowed painfully. "Yobuseyo?"

She could've cried when, from the other end, someone spoke in a familiar voice.

He stopped eating for a second, just watching as her whole being seemed to lighten and get brighter. Her eyes were suddenly bright and shiny and she looked happy. Just like a kid on Christmas.

"Hinata!" she exclaimed the—he assumed—name with such joy, it threw him off guard. "Dangsini neomubogo sipeoyo!" And then she was speaking Korean, and he couldn't understand a word of it. He just knew that whoever she was talking to was someone she loved, she wouldn't seem so happy otherwise.

As they kept on eating their lunch, she talked happily with whoever was calling her.

She seemed happy. Cheerful.

He liked seeing her like that.

"_I want to be in the energy,_

_Not with the enemy"_

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

**.: ~ xxx ~ :.**

After Christmas, there was a while when he tried not to, but he couldn't help it. He couldn't stop it either.

So, he just surrendered to the fact that he was falling in love with her.

When she took the call during their lunch at the mall, he couldn't stop staring at her, even after she'd caught him red-handed—or like red-eyed. Semantics.

He'd tried being more discreet after that though.

But when the bastard sitting in front of him kicked him under the table with a _stop-staring-at-her_ look, he glared, because his best friend just couldn't understand what being in love felt like.

So he focused on what was left of his ramen and just watched his Saki from the corner of his eye. Maybe he should've been looking at his best friend instead, because Sasuke was staring at her too.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ omake ~ :.**

With a small bag in her hand—containing a hand sized ornamented hairpin wrapped in pretty paper for Konan—she went up the stairs with a skip in her step.

She'd spent almost an hour talking to her best friend as if they were right next to each other. The boys hadn't seemed to mind, not even when she'd dragged them to a jewelry & accessories boutique by the beach—because she'd declared she needed tourist crap and when Naruto was on her side, Sasuke couldn't say no to them.

So they'd driven to the beach and walked around looking over this and that, and finally they'd stumbled into a small boutique with plenty of unique things. The perfect present for Konan had been found. She'd worry about finding a present for Yahiko later.

She dropped the small bag in the low table in front of her couch and then sat on it, bobbing her head to the beat of David Guetta blasting through her ears.

After abandoning her faded purple All Stars by the couch, she went back down towards the kitchen. Another song started.

With the door open, she stared at the contents of the fridge, trying to find something eatable amongst all the diet crap her mother and Karin insisted on buying. Who actually survived on things without any type of proteins and calories?

With a sigh she grabbed a VitaminWater and closed the metallic door. Goodbye cool breeze.

The moment she turned around, she regretted it. Her expression settled into one of disgust.

Karin was pressed into the counter, halfway up into it, with a guy pressed into her. Said guy had his shirt halfway open, his hands up and inside her shirt—she could guess that Karin wasn't wearing a bra, it didn't take a genius. Also worth of mention was the tight Karin had lifted up, leg wrapped around the guys' hip, her skirt lifted up, guy's hand moving up, up, up into—

She turned back around with a shudder, re-opening the fridge and staring at the contents blakly.

A shiver—of disgust—ran up her spine when Karin moaned a _"Tyler"_ and Tyler grunted.

"_Oh god."_

She cringed at the mental image she was getting.

"_Gross."_

At least she managed to find some leftover Moroccan couscous salad, which was good. And it had a spoon in the bowl too—she was so not getting close to the cutlery drawer with Karin pressed into it. Never.

With a strong resolve to _**get away**_, she slammed the fridge door closed.

The 1-step-away-from-having-sex-on-the-kitchen duo paused and turned their heads to look at her.

Tyler guy was eyeing her as if he was considering her joining them while Karin was glaring.

She ignored whatever the bitch had to say to her, just walking out and away.

"I'm the whore, gotcha."

She snorted at the shrieked insults that ensued. And shuddered again when the moans came back.

"_Don't stay_

_Forget our memories_

_Forget our possibilities"_

**.: ~ TBC ~ :.**

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

Hope you liked it everyone!

Please let me know what you think, I love feedback!

It makes me keep going! :D

.

_**So...** Leave a review please!_

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

_For those of you who got confused with the Korean..._

**Glossary:**

Jiog ena kara – go to hell

Yobuseyo – much like the Japanese "moshi moshi", just a way to answer the phone, like "hello"

Dangsini neomubogo sipeoyo – I miss you so much

Omake – (Japanese) extra, bonus

.

**Songs Used:**

Breaking the Habit

Qwerty

Waiting for the end

The little things give you away

A place for my head

Don't stay

.

Kisses & Hugs

**-Azure Serenity**


	6. New Divide

****Right now... I feel like hiding under a rock. Why? Well, because it's been _**ages**_ since I last updated and... and... I'm so so **SO** sorry for that!

It all comes down to college + money problems + losing 1 month of classes + lost of catching up to do.

With that said, I wrote some extra pages to make up for it. Aka, I'm begging for forgiveness.

Anyway, you guys are already probably going 'move it along, we want to read the story' so... Enjoy!

And Please do let me k,ow what you think, what you liked best, what you didn't like, etc, etc!

**.**

**Shoutout **to the following reviewers comes here: black-red-rose-girl, Saiyuri Haruno, olol and Girlalicious !

Thanks for the reviews guys! They're my secret candy drug lol !

Oh! Btw!

I'm glad you guys like the story so much! And, to answer a question, Sakura's mom and Karin's dad are married, so they all live in the penthouse, hence why Karin is around a lot. Hope that cleared any doubts.

.

Sidenote here: I haven't been listening to too much Linkin Park lately, so no lyrics on this one. I may bring them back, or go back to add some in the future. Or I may switch to another band... I'm not sure.

Let me know if you guys want the lyrics or if it's fine without them!

.

**A.N. **I do not own Naruto or its characters. This plot, it's plot and everything related to it, was made through my imagination, so please do not plagiarize.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**The sentence that started it all: **In which Sakura... goes to the Garden.

**Details:** (prompts)

AU

High School

Hentai level 5!

**_Anyway..._**

* * *

><p><strong>.<strong>

**Wisteria Blues  
><strong>

**Summary: **Books were her friends, charcoal & ink her allies, music her escape and photography her outlet. So... what was he?

**.**

* * *

><p><strong>.<strong>

**Part VI **- New Divide

.

**.: ~ xxxii ~ :.**

**Location: Seoul, South Korea**

**Time: 4:30am, local time**

It was mid January, and Seoul was still bursting with energy from the holidays.

Decorations for New Years were still visible on the streets, and the holiday spirit was still present. There was something about the not so far New Year that gave the city a certain glow. A certain charm.

The snow drifted slowly towards the ground, covering the city in a white blanket, even though the busy center seemed unaffected. Calm neighborhoods with houses instead of buildings though, seemed to have been taken out of a holiday postcard.

In one of the many quiet neighborhoods across the river that led to the hustle and bustle of skyscrapers, a house stood amongst others.

Street lights glowed, while house interiors stayed black.

Except one particular window which glowed with artificial light.

The curtains were half open when Hinata sleepily sat up, blinking. She yawned, a hand in front of her mouth.

The day before had been a busy one, so she'd gone to bed as early as the sun.

Standing up slowly, she took the light purple comforter from the bed and wrapped it around herself—like little red riding hood, but with a comforter instead of a cape.

The thick, warm and fluffy material dragged on the floor as she made a quick trip to the bathroom and then back, re-entering her room with awake eyes, a washed face, brushed teeth and combed hair.

The clock shaped like a panda on her nightstand flashed 4:49am.

Still wrapped in the warmth of her comforter, she took her sticker filled baby blue laptop from the desk and settled on her bed, sitting against the wall—she didn't have a headboard.

The screen came to life, and soon, a group picture of her friends appeared.

With nothing else to do, she went about checking her emails and social networks.

When she had nothing else to do, she stared at the screen, a frown on her face.

She was worried.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xxxiii ~ :.**

Hinata was a worrier.

Not in an obsessive compulsive way, but she had a tendency to worry about things. Sometimes too much. And when she worried too much, she started thinking too much, started overthinking.

When she'd been a child, she'd always worried about not pleasing her father. He was a man that didn't show too much affection, his eyes always strict, so she could never tell what he was thinking. Every time he asked for her, she worried about what he would tell her, if he would use that cold tone of his that said he was displeased or disappointed.

He used that tone a lot with her. Because she didn't show enough initiative, because she was too meek and shy.

As she grew up, she started worrying more and more, but not just about herself or her father. She started worrying about her sister and her cousin.

When her sister had been a baby, she worried about her wellbeing and the possibility their father would use the disappointed tone on her—she shouldn't have worried though, her sister was everything her father had ever wanted.

Her cousin was quite like her father, and she worried about him too. His father was her father's twin brother, but they'd had a fallout when they were children, so every time Neji came to visit, she always worried. She worried that her father would treat him like an outsider.

He sometimes did, but Neji was strong, unlike her.

Until she was an official teenager, she'd never really had friends. She always worried about the people around her and what they thought or might think of her.

And then, when she'd made friends, she worried about them. She worried a lot.

As she stared at the screen of her laptop, at the 5 people grinning at her, she worried about the pink haired girl in the screen.

Was she all right? How was she doing?

Was it hard to live in Los Angeles?

Was her mother treating her well?

Had she made friends?

Was she eating properly? Doing enough exercise?

Was she taking school seriously?

A million others questions passed through her mind, and she wrapped herself tighter in her comforter. The plush material failed to provide much comfort.

She blinked the worried tears away and shook her head. She shouldn't be overthinking and thinking of worst case scenarios.

With a meek snif, she looked at the white house phone on her nightstand and grabbed it.

She fiddled with it for a while, and when the clock showed 5:19, she dialed the number.

She hesitated before hitting call, and when the beeps sounded in her ear, she buried herself even further into her comforter in nervousness.

The tone sounded twice.

Three times.

At the forth ring, she was ready to cry, but then the tones went away, and there was a voice she missed hearing every day.

"Yob-" there was a quick pause. "Yobuseyo?" She could've cried in relief.

"S-Sakura?" her voice came out more softly than she'd intended, her heartbeat still running too fast.

"Hinata!" the girl on the other end burst out her name in such delight, that she couldn't help holding the phone tighter in her hand.

"Hai." She spoke softly, relishing the sound of her friends' voice. She couldn't have said much else even she'd wanted too though, because Sakura started talking right after that.

"I missed you so much!" she paused. "How 've you been Hina-chan?" It was funny how they spoke in Korean but still used Japanese suffixes.

"Good." There was a laugh.

"Oh, come on, you gotta give me more than good." She giggled. It figured her best friend wouldn't be satisfied with a simple answer.

"Well…" she fiddled the comforter with her free hand, grinning at the whined _"Yeeeesss?"_ that reached her ear.

"Neji-nii is officially living with us now."

"Really?" there was a little shock, but it came and went quickly. "Wow, never thought he'd go through with it with that thick skull of his."

"Don't say that!" she couldn't help defending her cousin, he was more of a sibling than her own sister at times.

"But come, it's true. If there hadn't been this whole drama around his dad, do you honestly think he'd have accepted to live under Hiashi's roof?"

"Well… I supposed he wouldn't have."

"Exactly." A pause. "So, how did it go?"

"Oh, it went fine. We had a lot of unpacking to do, and Hanabi is still angry that her play room is now Neji's bedroom."

"Tch, serves her right. I know she's polite and all quiet and shit, but seriously, she's been in need of a reality check for a while now." She opened and closed her mouth, words not forming. "Your sister may be nice, but she thinks she's better than everyone else." She sighed at the words.

"Hanabi is…"

"Is your sister and you love her, so you don't need to take sides." She smiled, only Sakura would know not to put her in a conflicting situation regarding her sister.

"Enough Hyuuga business, how's everyone? Please tell me you've been keeping an eye on Dei!" she giggled, the mood turning much lighter.

"He's been busy with classes, but he still drops by almost every day." She rolled her eyes and could see Sakura doing the same. "He's thinking of going to Paris for a semester next year."

"Oh! That's cool! He'll love it there, though with his pyromaniac tendencies, they'll probably kick him out!" they both laughed at their inside joke. After a while, her best friend spoke again. "How's G?"

She bit her bottom lip before answering. It was a tricky question after all.

"He's… fine."

"Fine?" she had expected the suspicion as well as the worry.

"Yes, he just seems more closed off now that you're not here." She could see Sakura going all frowns and biting her thumb. "But he's not going all emo, so that's good."

"Mh-hmm." A mumble, and then "This sucks." She sighed.

"We all miss you Sara-chan!"

"I miss you guys too, so much." She sounded so sad. So defeated. They needed to talk about something else, or she'd be worrying and crying soon.

"G's been quieter, but I'm sure you'll get some news from him soon."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she giggled into the comforter.

"Nothing!"

"Hinata!"

"You'll see." She giggled some more at the other girls' whine, she hated not knowing something when she knew there was something. And that something was a certain package sent through the mail from a certain best friend of theirs. That boy cold be so closed off and such a child at times.

"You're so mean Hina, you know I hate surprises."

"No you don't."

"Let me rephrase that, I hate surprises that I know are gonna happen." She laughed, and soon they were both laughing.

"I just remembered, what should I get Yahiko-nii? I'm all out of ideas." She pondered on that. The man was a complete child, so it was hard to get him presents.

"Maybe some kind of game or puzzle? He loves those things."

"Hmm… that's actually a pretty good idea." She was about to say something, when from the other end of the line came a _"Hold on a sec."_

And then Sakura was talking in English, her voice muted from, presumably, distance to the phone.

"Move it blondy, I don't have all day." She could make out whining from someone, but nothing else. "No, we're not getting more ramen for the trip—and you keep your mouth shut."

It sounded like she at least wasn't spending her days alone, holed up in a corner. That was good.

"Ok, sorry about that. Where were we?"

"How about, how have you been?" she was worried about the answer to that.

"Good, I guess. You know, same old, same old."

"Sakura."

"Ok, fine, geez. I'm fine, really. It's not _too_ bad here, but I'd rather be back home." She couldn't help the sigh that passed her lips.

"Are you really ok?"

"As I'll ever be." Somehow, she sounded bitter while saying that.

"It sounds like you made friends." She really hoped Sakura took the bait.

"Are you kidding? These two idiots?" she snorted, and probably rolled her eyes. "One's annoying beyond belief and the other one's a bastard."

"I'm sure they're not that bad…"

"Uh-huh, that's 'cause you don't have to put up with blondy's loud mouth. I swear, he's way too obnoxious for his own good. And he's too touchy-feely and cheery."

"Blondy's?"  
>"Naruto's blond, so, yeah, blondy." She giggled and Sakura chuckled.<p>

"What about the other one? You said there were two."

"Right. The other one's the bastard. Real piece of work."

"What could he have done that's so bad to have you call him that?" she couldn't help worrying. Sakura never called someone harsh names so seriously unless they did something bad.

Instead of an answer, there was silence.

"Sara-chan?"

"…he's blackmailing me." A pause. "Kinda."

"Excuse me?"

"It's nothing reall—"

"It's not nothing." She couldn't help the harshness. "Why is he blackmailing you? Is it because he wants money? Is he using you?"

"No, no, Hinata, relax. Deep breaths." She did as told, and let her keep going. "That's why I said kinda. He's just… really annoying you know. He's blackmailing me into being his buddy or something. I still don't get it."

"Can you elaborate?"

"Sure." She drawled the word before continuing. "It's like he just wants to get on my nerves. I kicked his ass a few times too!" she rolled her eyes.

"You didn't break anything I hope." A laugh.

"Nah, I just gave him a bruised cheek and some sore ribs."

"Sakura!" a gasp.

"Relax, that was before Christmas. He's more tolerable now."

"No more beating."

"Sure, sure mommy, no more beating the bad guy." They both paused and then giggled.

"He sounds… interesting."

"Yeah, right, more like strange."

"How so?"

And then her best friend proceeded to tell her all about _'the bastard named Sasuke'_.

It was both stunning and fascinating how complex a boy could be. She was also very surprised at how much Sakura was letting herself be influenced by him, but didn't seem to notice. She wasn't about to point it out either.

"He doesn't seem too bad."

"Yeah, sure, except for the wandering hands, the kissing and the absolutely ridiculous personality disorder and random niceness." She contained a giggle.

"Like I said, he doesn't sound too bad."

"Uh-huh, you can tell me that once you spend a week being nagged and conned into doing stuff." A pause. "Oh, hold on, sorry."

She was back to speaking to the boys she was with, seeming far away from the phone.

"Nope, we're going to the beach!" She sounded awfully cheery, which was good. From somewhere near, there was a whine, and now she could tell it was a boy.

"Why?"

"Because I said so." She giggled, Sakura had a tendency to snap. "Besides, I need tourist crap." She full out laughed when she heard a smack and something that sounded like a groan.

"Don't be so gloom Sasuke, you get to drive and listen to Naruto!"

After that, she felt reassured about her best friend being in Los Angeles. No matter how much she'd rather have the other girl in the same city (namely Seoul) it seemed that she was doing ok and had at least found some friends in the midst of all the chaos.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xxxiv ~ :.**

**Location: Los Angeles**

**Present time**

Sometimes, she wondered if, even though Sasuke apparently got all the girls, he was actually a lot less confident than Naruto, who seemed to be rejected by pretty much all females. She came to the conclusion that she was probably right when February came around, with some surprises lying in wake.

It was the morning of the first Saturday of the month and she was standing in front of her bed. She refused to make her room look cozy like she'd done in Seoul, but she also refused to let it stay as a storage unit. She'd unpacked some of her boxes and put the rest in the walk-in closet.

Behind the bed were bay windows leading to a balcony, in front of it a couple of steps leading down to the rest of the room. She'd put the black couch right in front of the bed, the plasma screen nicely centered on the wall with it. There were a couple of bean bags next to said couch, and to the left stood an octagonal table with four chairs. In the wall to her left stood 2 doors, one leading to the bathroom and another leading to the walk-in closet, the latter residing on top of the small steps.

With a sigh she looked to her right and smiled at the news board she'd put there, only instead of news she'd put photos. Most of them were of her friends, but she was in some as well.

Two steps below in the same wall, there was the closed door that led into the hallway, closed so she didn't have to put up with Karin and her friends.

She supposed the room wasn't half bad, though she still couldn't understand why people wanted rooms that were as big as a living room. There was just too much space that turned the room too impersonal to her taste.

Shrugging, she went down the two steps and slid over the back of the couch, landing on her back over the cushions. With a silly grin, she reached towards the low table and took the remote as well as the box of strawberry pocky there.

With the plasma screen tuned to NHK, she munched on her pockies while watching a Japanese medical drama.

The cool breeze floated in from the half open bay windows behind. It was starting to get hot again and for once, she missed the winter cold of Seoul. She especially missed the snow.

The characters dwelled about some kind of problematic situation and all was right in the world. She felt calm and at peace.

Until the banshee decided to burst into her room with her high pitched voice and whiny brat attitude that is.

She didn't even bother trying to understand what the bitchy girl was talking about, her brain was tuned to Japanese, and she wasn't going to change that.

She bit into another pocky and munched. Karin's voice was annoying in the background, but she managed to ignore it. She was proud of herself for that.

And then suddenly, when the intern was about to perform a risky procedure on a patient because the genius doctor wasn't available, Karin's voice turned into a soft purr—she was disgusted to that, that tone was icky and nasty to her ears. She couldn't be bothered to glance to see the why though, the show was starting to get interesting.

"Hey Saki!" she almost groaned when Naruto's obnoxiously cheery voice crossed the room. She'd forgotten they'd agreed to meet to finish some things for their Biology assignment. That explained why Karin was all gushy now, Sasuke was here.

Instead of getting up to greet them, she raised a hand over the couch and waved. A second later the couch bounded as the blonde threw himself over it and landed next to her feet.

She rolled her eyes. The blonde could be such a brat.

Out of curiosity, and because the show was on a commercial break, she glanced back to see Sasuke trying to avoid being groped by Karin. She smirked, served him right for being all hands on her sometimes.

Without a care in the world, she went back to watching TV. But Naruto was on the rescue unit.

"Stop flirting around and get your ass over here so we can work bastard." Karin whined, because apparently Sasuke was moving away, so she had to resign herself to leaving so they could work. She left promising to be by the pool when they were done.

She felt Sasuke looming over her behind the couch by the lack of light from the windows, but didn't bother looking up. If he wanted her attention, he'd have to do better than that.

"So, what's the show about?" her medical drama had started again, and Naruto was curious.

"The new intern doc is clumsy but a genius that no one has confidence in, and they all have some issue or another to deal with." She shrugged, the basis of these shows were all the same. Well, for the most part anyway.

"Cool."

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xxxv ~ :.**

It was only when she finished her box of pocky and the medical drama was over that they moved on to do some actual work for school. The whole thing was almost done, but they had to do oral presentations when the teacher requested.

She'd gotten her laptop and Sasuke was doing some final research in it, sitting on the table, while she and Naruto had everything spread around in the floor and low table in front of the couch, discussing how it should look like and what they should put on the presentation.

It was then, when Naruto animatedly talked about doing things one way or another, that she noticed how Sasuke seemed to be focused on the screen of her laptop but not doing any work at all.

She tuned Naruto out without meaning to, her eyes on the raven haired boy sitting at the table pretending to work. He looked so… unfocussed.

And sad. He looked really sad.

She thought of getting up and walking closer to him. He'd look at her with his arrogant what-do-you-want look, looking away when she didn't answer and going back to pretending to work.

But she'd keep walking closer, until her knee would touch his leg, and he'd look up at her, ready to voice a rude, but emotionless, 'what?'. She wouldn't say anything.

She'd run her fingers over his cheek, and then would wrap her arms around him, holding his head against her thorax. He wouldn't say anything, just breathe.

A few moments would go by, and then she'd feel his hands on her, running over her hips and waist and tugging at her clothes, pulling her down, and down until she would be on his lap.

His mouth would find hers in a heartbeat. It would be hot and she'd close her eyes, feeling his hands wrap around her waist and tangle in her hair at the back of her neck.

She'd wrap her arms around his neck, pulling him closer, kissing him deeper. One of his hands would slide under her top, his skin warm against hers.

She'd pull away to breathe the tiniest bit. Their moist breaths would mingle between them and she'd breathe out his name. His lips would move against hers.

"Sakura."

She blinked and shook her head. Everything came into focus after that. Naruto had been the one to call her.

She mumbled incoherently when Naruto announced he needed to leave and buried herself in organizing everything they'd talked about as he gathered his things to go.

What had she been thinking?

Dear Buddha, she'd been thinking about something… completely stupid and moronic that would never happen. She'd been thinking about kissing him and she didn't want that, she absolutely didn't.

With a sigh, she gathered the last of the scattered papers and did a neat pile, stacking pens, pencils and everything else in the low table.

She'd just gotten up and stretched when she felt his body heat.

For some reason she couldn't process it. It confused her, but she didn't understand why.

It happened in a matter of seconds, but the moment after she felt his body heat, his hands were on her, one at her waist, the other at her neck. His mouth followed, and then she was being lowered to the couch.

His weight settled on her, and she couldn't help but give in.

He was making her quiver as he touched her, bolder than ever before. His hands left a burning trail on her skin, moving under her top to places he'd never touched.

With a start she realized he was being possessive. Rougher, bolder touches. Kisses harder and more forceful.

One of his legs was between hers, his pelvis pressing down on her.

At some point his hands pulled her top away from her body—she reckoned it ended up on the floor—and she arched into him.

He was being intense.

So intense.

More so than usual.

It felt… different than any other time.

For some reason she let him touch her everywhere and anywhere.

She hated herself for getting turned on by the whole thing.

But she did.

And dear lord, he made her feel good.

One of his hands cupped her breast, the other tugging at her hair, and she couldn't breathe. She threw her head back, breaking their kiss and gasped, eyes glazed over.

He didn't seem to care, as he kept his hand on her chest and started kissing her neck.

Time seemed to blur after that. The pleasure. The heat. It was almost suffocating.

He kissed her, and kissed her, and touched her, and she kissed back. Touched back.

His shirt ended up somewhere random as well. She even let him undo the button and zipper of her jeans.

His fingers moved over her hip, lower to her tight, but he didn't push further. She wouldn't have pushed him away if he had though. The fingers of his other hand were tangled in her hair, tilting her head back as he left a burning trail of kisses from her neck to her chest. She knew she'd have hickies later. Somehow she didn't care.

All she could bring herself to care about was the heat from his body.

The way his hands touched her.

His kisses.

The way his chest pressed into hers, skin on skin almost completely.

It all felt so… so…

He bit her neck. She gripped his hair in her hand tighter, clutching at his back with the other.

She cursed her brain for the lack of thought process. She really didn't want to let him touch her, but it all felt so good.

As he nipped at the spot right under her jaw, below her ear, she realized he was being possessive, and that meant she wasn't his make-out fuck buddy. The way he touched and kissed as if trying to brand her meant she meant more than he let on.

He probably didn't realize that.

She wished she hadn't.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xxxvi ~ :.**

He didn't know what came over him. He truly didn't.

He just knew that he hated seeing her and the dobe so close and buddy-buddy. He hated that she kept smiling and laughing with his blond best friend. He hated that she looked so carefree and happy with him.

He hated that as they chatted merely, while he went completely unnoticed, that they completely ignored him.

He hated that they talked without including him or asking for his opinion.

He didn't care he wouldn't have said much, they still shouldn't have ignored him.

So when the dobe left, it was all bubbling beneath the surface—he got up, fists clenched.

He'd meant to be dismissive and just walk out without the tiniest bit of explanation. He'd planned to just walk out, ignoring _her_ completely.

But when he got so close to her that he could feel her body heat, he couldn't help it. He let his hand hold on to her and lowered her to the couch, his mouth finding hers the same way his lungs processed air.

She was soft and smooth all over, from her hair to her skin. And she was so incredibly arousing in the way she moved and touched and breathed under him.

The dobe had no right to want to take her away from him. No right.

Because yes, _oh yes_, he knew his best friend had a crush on her. One of those crushes that turn into falling in love, and the dobe was already at that stage. But he didn't care, couldn't bring himself to care.

He kissed her harder, touched her more. In despair.

He wouldn't let her. Wouldn't let her be taken away from him.

He felt himself shake as he threw her top somewhere, his lips on hers. Why did the dobe have to want her? Why?

Not that it mattered much.

He was the one with her hands on his skin.

He was the one she was undressing.

He was the one feeling her up with only a white&orange striped bra as barrier.

He was the one unbuttoning her jeans.

He was the one she was pressed against.

Him, not the dobe. _**Him.**_

God, how far gone was he anyway?

He'd probably hit rock bottom on the metaphorical pit already.

"_Look at me goddamnit. Just look at me."_

But she'd never really look, would she?

Because he'd forced her into being 'friends' with him. Forced her to let him kiss her. Forced her into doing whatever he wanted her to do.

Forced her to enjoy what he did when all she wanted was to be left alone.

And now, all he could do was… nothing really.

He was probably passing for needy, but he didn't care. Not at all.

He just touched and kissed and felt as much as he could, because he knew, just knew he wouldn't be able to it much longer.

No matter how much he wanted to be able to have her this way whenever he wanted, he couldn't bring himself to use and abuse the stupid video he had hanging over her head. He just couldn't.

Because he couldn't bear the thought of her hating him more than she already did.

"_Look at me. Just look at me."_

He could've cried at the realization.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xxxvii ~ :.**

Sunny Los Angeles was one of her favorite cities. It was warm, it didn't rain too much, wasn't too cold, the beaches were amazing, but above all else, everyone worshipped her. She was like royalty.

The water in the swimming pool glittered with the sun hanging high in the sky, and she lay in one of the _chaise longue_ in a stylish red bikini that matched her hair. On each side of her she had one of her friends, both beautiful with gorgeous bodies and blond and light brown hair, clad in equally stylish bikinis, blue and green.

She surrounded herself by the very best, and that's what the other two girls were.

Sitting up, she threw her loose red hair behind her with a flourish and got up.

"I'll be right back!" she walked inside with a skip in her step, faintly hearing the girls telling her not to take long or the sun would go away.

For some reason, she felt overly confident walking around in only her small thong red bikini. Just the thought of Sasuke seeing her like that make her feel hot inside.

"_Oh my, I need some crystalline water."_ She fanned herself with one manicured hand and turned towards the kitchen.

Only to stop abruptly when she saw the hippie looking blond with his back turned to her. She couldn't fathom as to why Sasuke surrounded himself with people like the blond—so stupid and uncouth.

Her nose scrunched and her eyes narrowed.

"What are you doing in my kitchen?" the blond had the audacity of turning around in surprise and shrugging with a grin.

"Get out." She pointed to the exit and the blond frowned.

"I'm going, geez, I just came to get some water before I leave." She glared at him as he walked past her—as far away from her as he could—and then towards the elevator down.

She breathed in anger when she heard him mumble a "bitch" under his breath.

He didn't even have the decency to appreciate the beauty in front of him.

"Tch." She took a bottle of mineral water from the fridge and took a sip before it dawned on her. She squealed.

"Sasuke's alone!" she clutched the bottle to her breasts and jumped. And then she frowned.

"Gosh, he's probably being molested by that filthy slut. Ugh." She was probably trying to get in his pants. "Aw poor baby." She put the bottle down on the counter and went for the stairs. "Don't worry, mama's gonna save you!"

With a giggle, she caught her sarong from the railing and wrapped the flimsy orange-ish material around her waist as she went up the stairs.

The bitch had nothing on her. The moment she walked through that door, Sasuke would be eating her up with his eyes, he just wouldn't resist coming to her.

Adjusting her breasts, she pushed her chest outward and slammed the door open.

"Mom called to remind you to do the errands she told you about." That ought to get the freak away from her future boyfriend.

She'd expected to see... something. To get a snappy reply or some other vulgar thing. Or to see something like Sasuke trying to escape the freak's evil clutches.

Instead…

Her jaw dropped and she watched the scene before her, baffled, before rage started taking over.

Her fists clenched, but her mouth remained open. Because the scene before her… it was just something out of a nightmare.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xxxviii ~ :.**

The sound of the door slamming open shocked them to the point of freezing every single thought or action.

Slowly, their eyes met, breaths coming short and hearts racing. They stared, Karin's voice in the background just that, background noise that could not be understood. A murmur.

It was like time had frozen.

And then the next second, it was like it was on fast-forward.

Suddenly, his hands weren't touching soft skin and fabric and he wasn't facing bright apple green eyes. Suddenly, he was shoved away and she was getting up and walking away.

He blinked once, before getting up to follow her. As if a moth to a flame, he just couldn't stay away. The black ink on her right side, over her waist and hip, stopping just shy of her ribs, didn't even register in his brain.

She entered the bathroom and he wondered what the hell was happening, because he had no idea. Not a clue.

She almost slammed the door in his face, but he reached for it and followed her inside, leaving the door pretty much open.

"Sakura." He called out to her because it seemed as if she'd walk into the wall just to get away. She stopped, and when she faced him, the look in her eyes… it pained him in a way he didn't know was possible.

Unlike every other time of the day, when you couldn't really read her, just see glimpses of what she was really thinking and feeling, she was like an open book now. Every single emotion showed on her eyes. A very open book.

He saw confusion and doubt. Sadness and anguish. He saw a lot of other things. But the one thing he saw that struck him like a kick to the groin was the betrayal.

He felt sick, because now he knew there was no turning back.

Her breathing was coming out fast and irregular and he wished he knew what to do. What to say.

This wasn't exactly the kind of awkward like in the abandoned classroom where she'd been crying without even knowing, nor was it the kind of scene he could entertain himself with.

No. This was…

She opened her mouth to say something, closed it, and then turned her back on him, her hands going up to her head to clutch her hair.

He took a step forward, his hand reaching out to her. "Sakura—"

Before he could even come close to her she turned around, her hair circling her head. Her eyes were cold now.

"Don't." he let his hand fall. She shook her head. "Baka da naa, atashi."

He vaguely understood the words—he'd been born in Japan and still knew some things, but he wasn't fluent. She said them with such sorrow though, it pained him to just hear them.

She shook her head again, not facing him at all.

"I knew this would happen."

His fists clenched he couldn't bear it. Those words…

He knew there was something wrong—broken—in her. Could imagine what the reason for wanting to be left alone was—because her mother was rich and she wanted no part of it. But he'd never even considered it wasn't about her mother.

He walked closer. Touched her shoulder.

She jerked away, glaring.

"Don't, just don't." she sounded so… cold. But what he saw in her eyes… it screamed at him.

"_I don't want to be used anymore."_ Like a knife to the heart.

He decided to do something at that precise moment. He decided to not just let it all happen without fighting.

So he reached for her and pulled her towards him, holding her tight against his chest. He couldn't care less that he was risking getting beat up again.

He held her as hard as he could while she tried to push away, burying his face in her neck.

"I'm not using you." She really did push him away then, the cold betrayed look back in her eyes.

"Get out." He opened his mouth to say something—anything—but she beat him to it. Shoving him back, she repeated her words. "Get out!"

He paused for a second. And then decided to head her words.

He took a couple of steps back, watching as she tried to control her breathing.

When he turned around, he came face to face with the mirror.

He saw himself.

And then he saw her sliding against the wall with her hands in her hair.

As he took the final step to exit the bathroom, he saw her bury her face between her legs, her arms crossed over her head, shaking the slightest bit.

As he closed the door, he'd never hated himself more.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xxxix ~ :.**

There were things that changed the way you thought about something, or someone. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst.

Most things though, even if you didn't realize it, changed the way you thought about yourself and your actions.

He didn't remember a time when he'd felt so helpless. When he'd felt like such a bastard.

He knew people called him that—and worse—but he'd never really felt it. He knew the dobe only called him bastard to piss him off.

But now… he just didn't know what to think.

The moment he saw the exhibitionist redhead by the door, the picture became clearer in his mind.

The fucking bitch couldn't have knocked like normal people did. He contained the glare, but couldn't help the dark look he gave her. She seemed taken aback.

He snatched his shirt off the floor and shrugged it on, not bothering with half the buttons. And then he grabbed his bag.

Stupid showy moron had to barge in.

He was pretty sure if she hadn't done a show out of her entrance the girl on the bathroom wouldn't have reacted to their make out session like that.

She'd probably still pushed him away, but probably not like that. She'd have probably showed him off the couch to land on his ass. She'd have probably glared, thrown his shirt in his face and maybe landed some well-placed hit on some random part of his body.

She'd have probably been moody for a while, but not like…

He clenched his fists hard.

"_Fuck it all to hell."_

He walked out the door shoving Karin out of the way.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xl ~ :.**

As a small child, she'd loved to go to her grandparents' house.

It was an old clan house, built in old Japanese fashion, with pavilions, shoji doors, wooden corridors and beautiful gardens.

She'd loved how beautiful everything was, even though her grandmother wasn't all that nice to her.

She'd loved the old compound all the same. She'd loved it because she didn't have to pretend like she had to with her mother, she could just be herself.

But that wasn't the only reason. She loved going there because her grandfather was nice to her. He was kind and always had something nice to tell her.

He would answer her questions and teach her something new every day. He would carry her in his shoulders and take her on walks through the gardens.

He was the closest thing she had to a father. To a real parent.

There had been one time, when she'd been no more than 5, when her mother had had one of her fits. She'd fallen into the mud and dirtied her kimono.

She been standing very still, looking down and holding the tears in as her mother lectured her when her grandfather had arrived, asking what the matter was.

The two adults had exchanged words, until suddenly her grandfather had yelled and her mother had become very very quiet.

He'd come closer to her and knelt down, his hands examining the dirty silk. She'd mumbled apologies, but instead of taking them, her grandfather had done the complete opposite.

He'd told her not to worry, that what mattered was that she hadn't gotten hurt, that the kimono could be washed.

She'd sniffled and looked at him. A gentle smile had greeted her.

He'd taken her hand and walked her away from her mother.

She'd looked up at him in awe the whole way to a room where someone she couldn't remember had helped her dress into something else.

As she cried like a toddler in the bathroom floor, she wished her grandfather was there to comfort her. He'd know what to say to make her feel better.

She did her best to hold in the sobs, she absolutely didn't need nosy Karin coming to see what was happening inside her own bathroom.

The tears though, kept on streaming down her cheeks.

What was she thinking?

"_Damn it."_

The fact was, she hadn't been thinking. Because if she had, she wouldn't have gotten herself into a predicament like this. She'd have kept the boundaries tightly in place.

She knew it was bound to happen. She'd hoped she'd be wrong this time.

It was always the same, everywhere she went.

No matter how hard she tried not to let anyone in, she always did. In the end, she always ended up being hurt and used, like a rag, and then thrown away and turned into a laughing stock.

She'd reached the limit of friends she could have. She'd been a fool to believe she could make more.

"Baka, baka, baka." She blubbered the words in a whisper, choking on the last one.

His voice echoed in her mind against her will.

"_I'm not using you."_

He was a liar, and that's why she hated people.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xli ~ :.**

**Location: Seoul, South Korea**

**Time: 1:07am, local time**

_Bzz… Bzz…_

The night was dark.

_Bzz… Bzz…_

The room was even darker with the curtains drawn shut.

_Bzz… Bzz…_

On the small table next to the bed, a phone vibrated, light shining from the screen in time with the buzzing.

_Bzz… Bzz…_

On the bed, the owner or said phone groaned and buried himself under the covers some more.

The phone stopped, the faint light disappearing.

Under the covers, a body relaxed, sinking into the warmth once more.

Outside the wind blew, but everything else was quiet.

Coming from somewhere in the house, a very low buzz came from all the electronics.

Silence.

And then it started again.

_Bzz… Bzz…_

"Mwoya…" a mumble came, muffled by the covers, before a hand reached blindly for the phone. It touched the table lamp and the alarm clock shaped like a cat first.

_Bzz… Bzz…_

It then made some pencils and a paint brush slide to the floor before finding the vibrating gadget.

With a grumble, the covers were pushed back slightly to reveal a mop of blond hair.

"Yobuseyo?" he didn't even try to sound polite.

Silence. A vein started throbbing on his forehead.

Who had dared wake him up at unholy hours?

A sniffle. And then – "Oppa…" another sniffle.

He blinked, sleep deprivation still clouding his judgment.

"Sara?" He spoke the name slowly, not quite awake yet.

"Dasi gago sip-eoyo."

It was then that he realized fully who it was.

Sitting up in bed—and slightly shivering at the cold outside the covers—he gave his full attention to the phone.

"Museun il-I iss-eossnayo?"

A second passed before it all came pouring out of her.

He pushed his blond hair out his face and held his phone tighter.

Everything be damned to hell. As his currently pink haired friend cried and opened up her heart, he wished her witch of a mother hadn't moved her to the other side of the world. If she hadn't he could've sneaked into her room instead of just clutching the phone to his hear, trying to calm her down.

He wished he could beat the crap out of the moron who'd made her cry like that too.

The cold and sleep deprivation didn't bother him anymore.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xlii ~ :.**

Naruto didn't like butting in other people's business. If people didn't tell you the wrongs and rights in their lives, their reasons for being sad or happy or nothing at all, then they had their reasons. If they wanted you to know they'd tell you, butting in was rude.

It showed an imense lack of manners. And he might have been a little bit on the foolish side—sometimes—but his parents had taught him well.

So when Monday came around and he saw his bastard friend, he ignored the brooding, dark look and just dished out his excitement about the oncoming Valentine's Day. He had big plans for that day—maybe even some kind of sugary sweet for Saki with maybe a kiss at the end. He could dream.

When he saw said girl though, his excitement faltered.

She looked pale and shadowy, like she hadn't slept or eaten anything in days. Her eyes, usually a pretty green—although slightly closed off to the world—were a dull shade of jade. She looked like a faded figure in an old photograph, especially when she wore all shades of grey—grey faded jeans, grey converse, grey jean vest over a white shirt, grey jacket.

But he didn't let that affect him much. He was worried of course, but since she wasn't willing to share, he wouldn't probe. The offhanded manner with which she brushed them off was a clear sign she wouldn't get touchy-feely about whatever had happened to make her look so… faded.

So, because he wouldn't probe, he spent every free second he could trying to coach a smile out of her. It made him feel fidgety, anxious and borderline paranoid when his plan went completely on reverse, and, just before their last class, she stared him down with the iciest look he'd ever seen and told him to _'fuck off'_.

She walked away and into her classroom and he'd been left dumbstruck in the middle of the hall, wondering what the hell was going on.

When he tried to approach the subject with Sasuke—because clearly between the both of them they'd figure out what was wrong and how to fix it like they always did—he was left stunned dumb by the frigid look and _'whatever'_.

So, on the ride home—because he carpooler with his now not-so-much best friend—he nagged. Because hell, the bastard was not gonna leave him hanging.

But it was no use, all he got out of his dark haired friend were his nonchalant 'hn's that showed how little he cared.

As the week passed, things only got worse, and he seriously wished someone would just drop by and give him the new script because he was completely failing with the lines.

It hurt him to only catch glimpses of his Saki, to not even get a hello or a glance his way when he crossed paths with her. It was like everything was back to the start of the school year—he wondered if some mad scientist had transported him back through time and failed to inform him.

"Goddamnit." Across the table, Sasuke raised a brow, munching on his cafeteria-bought pizza. Sakura was nowhere in sight. She'd been MIA for the whole week. "Yeah, like you even care, you jackass." Said person rolled his eyes.

"He finally gets it, it's a miracle." His blood boiled.

"Oh, so now you make jokes." He didn't care a few heads were turning around them. The bastard in front of him seemed unaffected. "Let me know if I'm crazy but it's February right? And we're Seniors."

"Your point being?" oh, his blood was boiling now. How could the… the… the guy in front of him be so Damn calm.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" he slammed his hands in the table—the treys shook—and got up. "You know, I usually call you a bastard just because, but this!" he gestured with one of his hands, slamming it down afterwards. "How can you care so fuckin' little? Up until next week she sat with us, we were Friends! And now? It's like she doesn't even know us." He took a deep breath. "Something obviously happened to her and you're just, what? You're nothing, because you don't even care!" he knew he should've cared about the dark look Sasuke was starting to get, but he didn't.

"I always thought you were a self-righteous bastard just for show, but apparently I was wrong, because if that's how much you care for your friends, then I'm out, you can get some new ones."

Maybe it was the rage or the fact he was maybe _kinda_ in love with her, but he never saw the punch coming.

He staggered backwards, falling over the bench and landing on his back.

"Fuck off Dobe." He got up, blond bangs falling in front of his eyes, and glared.

"Oh, don't worry, don't have to tell me twice." He dusted his jeans and grabbed his bag.

"You're one messed up fuck, you know that?" inside his own mind he added _'How can you not care about her? She's our friend!'_

After that, he just walked away, lunch forgotten.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xliii ~ :.**

On his way home, driving through the streets way above the speed limit and not caring, his hands gripped the steering wheel.

Everything was just too much. Way too much.

The bathroom. The distance. The coldness.

And then the Dobe.

He'd just snapped.

Because the dobe was wrong. So wrong.

He _did_ care. And he _did_ want to help. And secretly he _did_ miss her.

And he knew, at least in part, what had happened.

But he was helpless. So goddamn helpless. He couldn't do anything, not even stop her from breaking down and calling herself an idiot for trusting him.

He slammed his fist into the wheel, the pain a welcome presence.

His hands shook so he curled them into fists, only to realize it wasn't just his hands, his whole body was trembling.

In anger.

In rage.

In… helplessness.

"Fuck." The car screeched as he slammed it into park, slamming the door closed and feeling the urge to get a crowbar from the garage and wreck his vintage car into nothing more than broken glass and scraps of metal.

"Well aren't you all jelly beans and sunshine." He froze in his steps, leashing the snappy reply deep in his mind and clenching his jaw—things would only get worse if he snapped at his dad.

"Kakashi." He heard a sigh, but couldn't bother to turn and look.

"And there you go again with the first name." steps approaching. "I'm assuming something happened."

"_No shit Sherlock, congrats on figuring that out."_

He kept his thoughts to himself, and his father came into view, orange porn book held loosely against his shoulder.

"So tell me, who called you gay this time?" the mocking grin only served to antagonize him, to make his blood boil even more.

With all his willpower, he held in the _'Piss off'_ at the tip of his tongue and just walked into the house, leaving the front door open instead of slamming it shut like he wanted.

His father was bound to appreciate the gesture.

**.: ~ TBC ~ :.**

* * *

><p>.<p>

Hope you liked it everyone!

Please let me know what you think, I love feedback!

It makes me keep going! :D

.

_**So...** Leave a review please!_

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

_For those of you who got confused with the Korean..._

**Glossary:**

Baka da naa, atashi. – What a fool I am. (Jp)

Baka – fool, idiot, stupid. (Jp)

Mwoya… – What the hell… (Kr)

Yobuseyo – equivalent to the Japanese Moshi moshi, or the English Hello when answering the phone.

Dasi gago sip-eoyo. – I want to go back.

Museun il-i iss-eossnayo? – Did something happen?

.

Kisses & Hugs

**-Azure Serenity**


	7. Let Down

Cheers everyone!

So, I'm re-posting this chapter because I've just noticed that, apparently, it shows as being all in bold? Or it could be my internet playing tricks on me... either way, I'm fixing it, so to those that were annoyed by it, I apologise and hopefully this time it'll be a better read. :3

**.**

****Shoutout to: ****EbonyCaptain, Yuuki-Hime 2097, Girlalicious, Tengible and lauchoco92 who were kind enough to review. (It's no secret that reading your reviews is the reason I'm still posting fanfiction :3** )**

**.**

**A.N.** I do not own Naruto or it's characters. On the other hand, this story and its plot came from my imagination, so that I do own. Please respect that.

* * *

><p><strong>.<strong>

**Wisteria Blues  
><strong>

**Summary: **Books were her friends, charcoal & ink her allies, music her escape and photography her outlet. So... what was he?

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**Part VII**

**.**

**.: ~ xliv ~ :.**

And in a mid-February Thursday, a lot can happen.

It all starts in the morning, and then things start unraveling…

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xlv ~ :.**

**Naruto's Morning**

He'd already turned the alarm off. The first one that is.

Beep beep beep…

But the second didn't take the hint.

Beep beep beep…

With a groan, he slammed his hand on the side table a couple of times before finally hitting the alarm.

Blue eyes opened. The room was filled with light from the rising sun.

The alarm spoke. Sorta.

"_Good Morning Los Angeles!" _The radio dude spoke in a merry tone. _"It's 7am and a sunny morning in the city of Angels, so put those jackets in the closet and bring out the shorts because it's gonna be a warm day with lots of sun to go around!"_

Running a hand through his blonde hair, he grinned and, after a pause, jumped out of bed. Literally.

He did a few stretches, listening to the road information, and then went over to his closet, getting a pair of jeans.

When the radio speaker announced music, he turned up the volume.

After putting on his jeans, he danced into the bathroom, moving to the sound of Smash mouth's All Start. He sang along while he brushed his teeth.

"Breakfast's ready!" he grinned and spit out the foam, before replying a loud _"Going!"_ to his mother's call.

Quickly rinsing his mouth, he ran back into his room and opened his closet wide, frowning when he couldn't find his white&grey checkered button-up. Taking his school bag, he decided to try his luck elsewhere.

Halfway down the stairs, he decided to get some help.

"Mom! Have you seen my new shirt? I can't find it anywhere."

He dropped his bag by the kitchen counter, where a plate full of pancakes was waiting for him. The bacon was still in the frying pan, sizzling.

His mother glanced back at him, amused.

"Try the ironed clothes basket." He nodded, grabbing a pancake and taking a bite despite his mother's disapproving look.

On his way to the laundry room, he walked past his dad exiting the bathroom.

"Lost your clothes again?" another amused parent, he rolled his eyes.

"Som'thing like that."

When he reached his destination, he put the rest of the pancake in his mouth, rubbed his hands against his jeans and started going through the laundry basket that sat on top of the ironing table. Halfway through he found his shirt.

"Jackpot!"

He made sure to button the shirt before entering the kitchen again—because his mother would get all scoldy if he didn't.

His dad sat at the table, reading the newspaper, a cup of coffee in front of him, while his mother finished putting the food for breakfast on the table.

He sat down, poured himself a tall glass of orange juice and filled a plate with pancakes and bacon, pouring maple syrup over the goodies.

While he ate his breakfast and his parents did the same, they made small talk.

He walked out the front door laughing at a joke and entered his beach jeep with a jump, throwing his book bag on the passenger seat.

His mother waved when he backed out of the driveway.

He waved back.

Driving to school—because there was no more carpooling with the bastard he'd called a best friend—he tried not to think about anything bad or sad, but failed.

So, while he drove past soccer moms and businessmen, he thought about everything that had happened in the past couple of weeks.

At a red light, he couldn't help the curses.

Everything had just spiraled out of control. Every. Damned. Thing.

Sakura had totally withdrawn from them—him. She'd become cold and dismissive. She treated everyone like a stranger, and that hurt, especially since he'd thought they were becoming good friends—he dared say, even best friends. She was certainly the best girl friend he'd ever had.

Now she was like… she looked faded.

Or jaded.

Probably both.

There was this dark aura that surrounded her, as if she'd been hurt beyond anything possible. It was sad and painful.

And then there was Sasuke. They'd practically grown up together, and he'd always been his best friend, despite the completely opposite personalities they'd always gotten along well.

But, and yes, there was a but, if he managed to see the good guy under the bastard façade regarding everything else, he just couldn't stand the douche Sasuke had been regarding Sakura. Like she'd just been a nuisance.

He couldn't stand that, and damn it all, but if he couldn't make his friend care—he'd tried and failed—he'd just rather have one less friend. Not that he had a lot of them, he didn't really care.

He parked in Sasuke's usual place just to piss him off.

After closing the car door, he watched his ex-best friend drive past him with perverse amusement, and resisted giving him the finger when he saw the glare.

He walked up the front steps with his head held high, sleeves folded up to his elbows and book bag against his hip.

The first surprise of the day came when he opened the front door to enter.

He half turned like he usually did, to see if anyone was behind him—he didn't like to get hit by the door because some jackass didn't hold it long enough, so he had the sense of common courtesy to see if someone was behind him before letting the door go.

The surprise was: Sakura was there.

She didn't look quite so faded as every other day. It was most noticeable because she'd been wearing only black, white & shades of grey for the last couple of weeks, but today she actually wore color.

He grinned at her, making a show of a gentleman-y bow like in the old days while checking out her outfit.

She wore the usual beat-up grey converse and black skinny jeans, but her top was a white girl version of a wife beater that went down to her thighs with a colorful depiction of a city at the front—probably Tokyo or Seoul considering where she was from. What surprised him were the bold reds and blues on the drawing. That and the sky blue jacket she had hanging from her messenger bag.

"Morning Saki!" she actually smiled, and that's when he noticed the fashionable rectangular glasses with sky blue frames and some kind of white pattern she had on.

"Morning." He mentally squealed because: one, she'd actually greeted him back and two, she'd smiled, not to mention she looked really cute wearing glasses.

He let go of the door not even bothering to check for anyone else entering the building and walked alongside her.

Even though they didn't speak, she hadn't blown him off, and the proximity was reassuring.

When he dropped her off at her classroom, before she could enter, he couldn't resist grabbing her wrist and asking the question, lest this not be a lapse in her sudden _'everyone's-an-enemy'_ mood.

She turned back, looking confused. He grinned sheepishly.

"See you at lunch?" she tilted her head, and for a moment he prepared himself for some kind of offhanded cold reply. He didn't have to.

"Sure." Even though she didn't smile, he grinned.

"Cool!"

He almost danced his way to class.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xlvi ~ :.**

**Sakura's Morning**

She stared at the ceiling with a blank look, tired, just waiting for the radio alarm to come to life.

The sun shone through the windows, not fully due to the half-open curtains.

She resisted the urge to check the time on her cellphone.

From outside, the sound of cars and engines seeped through.

She sighed, closed her eyes and turned to her side.

Staring at the pillow, and with nothing else to do, she started counting imaginary kittens. Sheep were overrated.

A strand of pink hair fell over her eyes.

Outside, some angry driver was abusing his honk power.

The alarm finally came to life.

"_Good Morning Los Angeles!"_

With a tired sigh, she sat up and pushed the covers back.

"_It's 7am and a sunny morning in the city of Angels, so put those jackets in the closet and bring out the shorts because it's gonna be a warm day with lots of sun to go around!"_

She tilted her head and stared at the radio sitting on the shelves she'd put next to the TV. Another day of sun. Personally, she'd have rather been getting her warm clothes from the closet, getting ready to face the snow and cold.

When the road information started, she got up and walked to the radio, turning it off just as the interlocutor announced Smash Mouth's All Star.

The (relative) silence was a welcome guest in her room.

So it was in silence that she washed her teeth and face, like she did every morning.

Part of the routine.

Get up, bathroom, wash face, brush teeth, comb hair.

It was when she exited the bathroom that Karin started to be heard, making the usual stampede by walking around in noisy shoes. An elephant would've been quieter.

She rolled her eyes and moved to the closet.

After taking off her pj's and throwing them on the closest empty shelf, she took the first bra she could find and grabbed the first pair of jeans, sliding them on.

While Karin complained about mascara and lipstick in high pitched tones outside her door, she sat on the floor and put on some socks.

Karin shut up.

Sitting on the floor, she looked up, facing shelves with clothes.

With a sigh she got up slowly, only to jump back and bump into a box when the door to her room was slammed open.

"What the…?"

She blinked and walked out of the closet, only to see Karin barging in, acting as if she owned the place.

"My lipstick better not be in your bathroom."

"Right…" Rolling her eyes she raised a brow and leaned against the wall, keeping the sarcastic comments to herself, especially when Karin stalked out of her room like a bull going towards a red flag.

"Bitch." With the low comment thrown into the air, she went back into the closet to rummage for a top.

Lifting a few things, she took a grey t-shirt, spotting her black vest on a hanger.

It was just as she was about to slide the t-shirt on that the realization hit her. And she felt depressed, because it was sad.

So sad.

It was sad that she always felt like wearing monochromes these days.

So, thinking about the disappointed lecture she'd get from her friends for her self-angst, she took the first top that had color: a white sleeveless t-shirt with a very colorful depiction of Tokyo that went down to her thighs. It was actually one of her favorites.

She smiled lightly despite not really feeling it and tied her hair in a high ponytail all the while ignoring the urge to get something dark to hide the bold colors of her top.

After putting on her beatup grey converse, she went down to the kitchen.

It came as a surprise to see everyone was there: the chef, preparing samples of food for their breakfast (because these people didn't eat food, they just tasted it), Karin in her school's uniform (the shirt too tight with cleavage showing and a mini-skirt to almost sluttish levels), her mother with a glass of orange juice in hand and her "stepfather" sitting in a chair with a newspaper.

Not to be impolite, she said _"Good morning"_.

Karin just looked away, nose in the air, her mother gave off a cold good morning. The only one that had the decency to properly greet her back was Karin's dad, who lowered his newspaper, smiled and said good morning. And he actually meant it.

She dropped her messenger bag in an empty chair, peered at the food the chef was making (nothing seemed appetizing) and opened the fridge to get a PowerC VitaminWater. She needed the energy.

The only man of the house (the chef notwithstanding, and what was his name again?) folded his newspaper and took his cup of coffee.

"Lovely day isn't it?" she heard Karin start chattering about the sun and whatever, and was surprised when, as she turned around, Daniel (yeah, that was his name) was looking at her. She smiled awkwardly.

"I guess." She shrugged, figured she should elaborate or he'd start asking questions. "But I miss the snow." He made an understanding face, and she didn't fail to notice the cold look her mother gave her. She just pretended she didn't.

She never really bothered with her mother's conquests anymore, but as she took a look towards Daniel (the newest husband) while taking a sip of her VitaminWater she was surprised at the realization that unlike so many others, he was actually a decent guy. He was simple and, unlike his daughter, he didn't have a superiority complex. He wasn't a snob.

Across the table, her mother had that serious look with pursed lips that she knew would lead to the woman saying something she didn't want to hear.

So, instead of giving her mother a chance to say something, she went in search of her reading contacts, she knew she'd left the small box in the kitchen the day before—she'd taken them off as they started hitching when she'd made herself some tea.

She tried some drawers and the cabinets but nothing, so she asked the question—last resort.

"Has anyone seen my contacts?" She ignored her mothers' reproving look and Karin's snappy 'no'. It surprised her when Daniel's answer was a polite: "Sorry sweetie."

For a second, she didn't know how to react, she'd never really socialized with Karin's father.

She shrugged and went back to her room. The only reaction she could come up with.

She was positive she'd left the contacts' box in the kitchen, the fact they were now missing could only mean Karin had something to do with it.

With a sigh, she rummaged through a few boxes before finding the item she needed. Pulling out the small painted white&baby blue wooden box, she put it on a shelf in the closet before opening it and taking a pair of glasses from inside—one of the last one's she'd gotten with Hinata's help, a pair of rectangular one's with sky blue frames and a white snowflakes pattern. She smiled at the memory of when she'd gotten them and put them on.

Hesitating before exiting the closet, she went back and took a sky blue jacket, just in case. Because even though it was LA it was still winter.

Slowly, she went down the stairs and grabbed her messenger bag from the kitchen—they were now all eating their samples of food. Or at least Karin and her mother were, Daniel already had an empty plate but he looked like he was starving, she would be too if she could only eat the minimal amounts of food her mom allowed him. She felt bad for the man, but was sure he'd get something to eat as soon as he got to work.

With her messenger bag strap slung over her shoulder she walked towards the elevator but hesitated before pressing the button. She knew she was forgetting something.

A frown.

And then…

"Ah!" And off she went back up the stairs, into her room towards the low table in front of the couch, where her iPod stood, earphones right next to it.

* * *

><p>.<p>

.: ~ xlvii ~ :.

The elevator ride down was slow and painful—in a way.

It was painful because she had to listen to Karin ranting in a very annoying high pitched tone about whatever she was ranting about. Which made every second seem like an hour.

She would've drowned out the borderline-slut if only Daniel hadn't been there—it was one thing to ignore Karin when no one was around (because really, she'd never met someone that annoying) but it was a completely different story to ignore the redhead when her father was right there. She wasn't about to add fuel to the 'she's an antisocial bitch' campfire Karin had started. Especially when she wasn't antisocial, she just didn't like people all that much.

So she had to tolerate Karins' ranting for the whole over 10 minutes.

When the doors finally opened in the ground floor lobby, her head was starting to hurt.

Once outside, she contained the groan when she felt the hot air floating around. Oh yeah, she totally missed the snow.

The snow. Hinata.

Throwing the first snowball at her blond best friend.

Ducking the snowball he'd throw back.

Her other best friend's mutters about being surrounded by kids.

Hinata's following giggle.

The all out snowball fight between all of them that would ensue.

The smiles, the grins.

The laughter.

The halfassed apologies at the school entrance as to why they were late.

She shook her head and cleared her throat, the only way she could think of to prevent the tears from falling.

No use going down the self-pity hole now, she couldn't do anything about the whole situation anyway.

A sigh.

"_I hate this city."_

A pause halfway through the few steps after the glass front doors.

"Would you like me to drive you to school?" she looked to her right.

"Huh?" he didn't seem to catch her dumb mumble.

"I'm driving Karin to St. Claire's and after I have to go your way." Karin didn't look pleased that her daddy was being nice to her.

He was acting like he actually cared.

He probably did.

"Oh! No, that's alright, I'm taking the subway." She paused, saw her stepfather frown lightly. "But thank you anyway." She forced a smile—it probably looked convincing since he smiled back.

"Ok then." And he waved when she walked away, towards the subway.

She waved back out of politeness.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xlviii ~ :.**

Ever since she'd started having a sense of awareness about being rich or poor, she'd hated her mother for being a snob.

So, ever since she was old enough to ask directions and know where to go, she'd always preferred public transportation over private cars.

Not because riding a bus or a subway packed to the brim was particularly comfortable, but because it was her own way of… being pro-environment.

Yes, a subway packed like a can of sardines wasn't very nice, but when it wasn't she actually liked riding it. It was interesting to see all the people (all so different) and how they behaved.

She waited for the subway to arrive for a few minutes, and once the doors opened, she sat at her usual spot.

The slightly chubby brunette with the pretty face and beautiful blue eyes was there, buried in a new book. Next to her was an 11/12 year old boy probably on his way to school.

On the far end to her right was a group of well-dressed guys, chatting. On the other end a mother stood with a stroller, playing quietly with her toddler, who giggled.

In her own quiet space, she fiddled with her earphones, but music didn't seem appealing at the moment. For some reason she couldn't identify, it really didn't.

For some reason, today she liked hearing everything around her better than music, her usual therapy.

"Is this seat taken?" she looked up, the answer already halfway past her lips.

"No, go ahead." And so the boy sat next to her.

He was tall (if she had to guess, she'd say close to 8feet), with jet black hair falling in front of his almond shaped black eyes. He was handsome, with distinctive charismatic features. In a cute-ish way.

All in all, the Asian boy was nice to look at, wearing a pair of faded blue jeans, white quicksilver t-shirt and a red hoodie jacket. With a pair of red sneakers to boot. Not to mention the black leather messenger bag and the bright blue and white headphones he had casually around his neck.

He wasn't just handsome, he also knew how to be stylish.

She took a sideways glance at him and noticed the sketchpad he now had on top of his messenger bag (that was on his knees).

Yeah, he was a college student.

"_Definitely a college student."_

2nd year tops, he couldn't be much older than her.

"You don't usually wear glasses." She blinked.

Pause.

Rewind?

"_Wait. What…?"_

She looked at him, only to find him slightly hunched over, sketching away.

"Didn't find my contacts." She gave herself a mental kick in the ass. What the hell was she doing, talking to a complete stranger anyway? One that was starting to sound like a stalker even though he'd barely said 10 words.

He hummed. Paused and glanced at her.

"They don't look too bad." She raised a brow.

"_What the hell is that supposed to mean?"_

"It's different." She contained the eye roll.

"Uh-huh." She was still suspicious.

The subway stopped.

The doors opened.

The 11 year old got out.

A few more people got in.

"I'm Sai." A pause.

The doors closed.

He was looking at her when she turned to him.

"_Awkward~~…"_

"I'm Sakura." He tilted his head and smiled.

"Nice to meet you Sakura." A dashing smile.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ xlix ~ :.**

When she changed lines in the subway, he changed too.

It made her really start thinking he was a stalker.

She sat down on the almost empty carriage and watched as _stalker-Sai_ (improv nickname) joined her, sitting in front of her.

She watched him in suspicion.

He caught her eyes and smirked.

"I'm not a stalker."

"If you say so." The smirk turned mischievous.

She wasn't convinced, not in the least.

"We've been riding in the same train for a while now."

"Yeah." She drawled the word. "I take the subway, like another million people. Yey." Unenthusiastic. He shook his head. Leaned back on his seat.

"You're not very sociable are you?" she gave him a blank look. He chuckled, shook his head.

The lady on the speakers announced the next station.

Only a little more for her to get out.

"Seriously, I'm not a stalker." She gave him a doubtful look.

"Why am I not convinced?" he shrugged.

"Maybe I should've sat down next to the other regular." When she raised a brow he continued. "Book girl, with the blue eyes."

Okay, so he wasn't a stalker. Or at least, he was starting to sound less like one.

He got up.

The train started to slow down.

"See, not a stalker. I'm just observant."

"Sure, sure." He gave her an amused smirk.

The train stopped.

"It's nice to see you with color for a change." She glared—not too much, just out of principle at the jab. "Suits you better than monochromes."

The doors opened.

"_Huh…"_

"Especially 'cause of the pink hair." She watched as he walked away without even giving her a chance to throw a comeback.

He did turn around once he was out of the train and in the platform, the stupid smirk in place.

"See you around Cherry!"

The doors closed.

She gave him the finger.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ l ~ :.**

And this was what she was thinking as she walked out of the subway station: _"Weirdest. Day. Ever."_

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

**.: ~ li ~ :.**

School was… like penitence.

It was as if she'd gone to a church to confess, with the whole _'Forgive me Father for I have sinned…'_ and the priest had sentenced her to go to school instead of praying whatever it was people that went to church prayed.

She didn't know, she was a Shinto/Buddhist like over 90% of the Japanese population.

She walked past the parking lot and up the small set of stairs at the main entrance.

Someone walking in front of her opened the door. She expected the person to let the door go—like pretty much everyone did—so when the door stayed open she looked up.

Naruto was there, holding the door with a ready grin that brightened up his whole persona. His blue eyes seemed to sparkle.

He made a show of a gentleman-y bow like in past centuries. Slowly, guilt mixed with some kind of nasty feeling seeped into her at having ignored him for so long. He didn't deserve it.

"Morning Saki!" but he was acting just as bright as before.

Like nothing had happened.

Like she hadn't hurt him—and she knew she had.

She smiled.

"Morning."

He let go of the door and they started walking side by side.

From behind came some kind of curse, but neither cared enough to look back.

He walked her to class in silence, and even though he wasn't talking away, she appreciated his presence—she hadn't realized it before, but having him close was actually nice. He gave off a bright vibe. Like the sun.

He grabbed her wrist before she entered the classroom.

"See you at lunch?" she tilted her head.

"Sure." He grinned.

"Cool!"

It was at that moment it struck her.

She'd missed him.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ lii ~ :.**

**Sasuke's Morning**

He didn't know why his dad insisted on changing his alarm clock, but the moment the damn thing went off, it annoyed the crap out of him.

"_Good Morning Los Angeles!" _The radio dude spoke in a merry tone. He groaned. Great.

"_It's 7am and a sunny morning in the city of Angels, so put those ja—" _ He slammed his hand on the gadget from hell and glared. He'd much rather wake up to beeping than to some annoying man that sounded way too happy for his own good.

With a sigh, he got up, running a hand through his hair.

From downstairs, he could already hear his dad moving around, the radio on and blasting Smash mouth's All Star. He was sure his dad was concocting some improvised breakfast while singing along. Dancing too, probably.

Ignoring, he went into the bathroom for a quick shower. Hopefully, the sound of running water would drown out the stupid music.

Thankfully, it did.

Everything and everyone seemed to be in the mood to mock him recently.

The weather.

The people.

Even the radio.

And then there was his idiot of a best friend—well, ex-best friend it seemed. All because of… of..

"Damn it." And the wall took the punch.

He vowed to himself he wouldn't think about it anymore—about her. But even his brain seemed to be against him.

It was crazy how much his life had changed. A complete 360.

Back in September, when school had started, he'd have been looking forward to a new day. To a new girl. Because it wasn't anything new for him—new girls that was.

More often than not, he didn't even have to bother trying, they just came at him—there was even the rumor of a fanclub.

More often than not, he didn't even bother memorizing their names, girls usually got boring quickly so there was no point.

But then, on that sunny September morning, a few days after school started with rumors of a strange new girl, he'd seen her, and she was strange alright.

She'd been wearing flashy blue jeans and a blue-ish white sleeveless t-shirt that covered her jeans' pockets. It had a cloud and lightening print on it. The shoes had been a pair of black leather boots that matched her dark grey jean messenger bag pretty well. He'd also seen several piercing in her ears, the metal shining in the light.

But what had caught his attention the most had been her hair. Cherry blossom pink, tied in a high ponytail, long bangs framing her pretty Asian face. That, and the black eyeliner that made her almond shaped eyes stand out.

The girl clinging to his arm had been totally forgotten and he'd expected the new girl to look at him. He'd expected her to… do something. Like every other girl did. Just… not…

It hadn't happened like he'd expected.

At all.

And that bothered him.

Because when her eyes crossed paths with his, she just kept on walking. She walked past him without a second glance.

She completely ignored him.

That had been the first time. Ever.

He'd actually been a little shocked, because he'd never been so blatantly ignored by a girl.

So he'd decided she'd be his next target, but that had kinda backfired.

He'd tried catching her attention in all sorts of ways, even cheesy pickup lines and 'accidental' crashes in the hallways.

Nothing.

He couldn't get her attention at all.

So he'd tried a different approach, the one he used when he wanted to intimidate his opponents before a basketball game. Or just intimidate someone in general.

But time after time, the only reactions he got out of her were blank looks. And annoyed ones.

Until she straight out told him to _'fuck off'_.

But because he was never good at taking no for an answer, he kept on pushing, and that earned him a black eye and sore ribs.

Who would have though such a small girl had such a strong punch?

By then he let it go for a while—a strategic retreat in order to plan a new approach.

It was pure luck that, one day after class (in which he hadn't seen her at all even though he was sure they had classes together) he caught her having a… psycho breakdown of sorts.

And he'd recorded it on his cellphone.

He'd felt lucky, and the blackmail plan went straight to the front lines.

He'd cornered her in the bathroom the very next day.

She'd been about to punch him, he could just see it coming, when he'd pulled up his cellphone and showed her the video.

She'd given him the coldest, most disgusted death glare he'd even seen—at that moment he'd actually felt a shiver go down his spine at the threat in her odd green eyes, but he'd smirked all the same, because she was suddenly standing frozen and since she hadn't punched him, that meant he'd won.

He'd left her there with a cocky remark of _'stay in sight'_ and a kiss she'd turned away from the moment his lips had touched hers.

He knew she hated him from the very beginning.

He knew she only stuck around because of the video—more out of principle than actual worry at what everyone would think he was sure.

But then the dobe had caught on (in a way) and they'd all started hanging out together. It was like they'd started becoming friends.

Slowly, she'd started getting back at him with gay jokes and stuff like that. The dobe approved. He found it incredibly annoying, but she stayed close, so he didn't mind all that much.

Slowly, oh so slowly, it had started to be… different.

And he'd stopped having a girl every few days.

Stopped being a _'jackass womanizer'_ as the dobe used to call him.

He closed the tab with a jerk of his hand, pissed off at himself and the world for letting things get to… to…

"Stop thinking about it Sasuke, it won't get you anywhere." He spoke the warning to himself.

The moment he saw his reflection on the mirror half covered in fog, he mentally kicked himself.

"Great, now I'm talking to myself."

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ liii ~ :.**

The moment he wrapped the towel around his waist, the bathroom door slammed open and his dad stepped in.

"Hurry hurry sunshine, you're gonna be late!" the merry tone grated his nerves. He gave the older man a blank look.

When the adult did nothing but stand there with a grin, he had to hold the snappy words.

"Do you mind?"

His father grinned some more, doing some kind of girly gesture with hands.

"Aw, don't be shy dear, I used to give you baths!" he pinched the bridge of his nose, exhaling slowly.

"Just get out." His father giggled, throwing some other comment in a girly voice.

"Kakashi." Still didn't work, so he pushed the man out of the bathroom and slammed the door in his laughing face. He could hear the comments about _'sensitive divas'_.

What he had to put up with every morning.

Sighing, he did his best to ignore his dad and decided to get dressed.

Black boxers, blue socks, blue faded jeans (with a rip in the left knee and shredded at the bottom from kinda dragging on the floor).

Gel on his hair.

Back to the room for the first t-shirt he could find (a purple one) and black converse.

When he finally went down the stairs and into the kitchen with his bag in hand, his dad was singing along to the song playing on the radio while pouring himself a cup of coffee.

He rolled his eyes.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ liv ~ :.**

Usually, he could stand his father's antics pretty well, considering he'd been putting up with it since he was a kid.

Today, he felt like punching the man for being so goddamn happy.

When he left, the urge to throw a punch didn't go away.

From there, it only got worse.

He reached for his keys in his bag, but they weren't there, so he went back inside and looked in his room—maybe they'd fallen or something.

Nothing, they were nowhere in sight and he was getting close to being late.

He didn't do late.

"Have you seen my keys?" he had to resort to asking his father, who shrugged and made a thoughtful face while putting on his jacket and straightening his tie.

"Didn't you leave them in the car?"

He didn't answer.

Mentally kicked himself.

Turned away and went back to the Charger.

"Idiot."

There they were, peacefully in the ignition.

His day was starting out so well.

Not.

Driving to school was even worse.

Every traffic light turned red when he got close, and more than one soccer mom cut him off in the road, yelling at him afterwards, as if he was the one doing the bad driving.

And then, when he got to school, just as he was about to go park in his usual space, the dobe—the fuckin' moron—parked there. And he totally saw the smug grin.

He had to park in the farthest spot from the door.

But he took it all in stride, taking some calming breaths.

Walking up the steps he saw the blond waste of space he used to call a best friend flirting with Sakura, holding the door for her. All grins.

She wore color today, and that surprised him.

Since he was behind her and she wasn't turning around anytime soon, he couldn't help it, his eyes drifted from her shoulder to her, ahem… bottom.

"_Nice."_ He kept the comment to himself and kept going for the door.

The stupid blond had the stupid habit of holding doors for people.

He was just stepping through the threshold, when the door came crashing on him.

"Fuck." It hit his arm, and he didn't like it that neither of them had the decency to look back, just walking together like best buddies.

He glared, slammed the door open and pushed some random freshman out of his way.

Oh yeah, his day was starting out awesome.

What else could go wrong?

Right?

* * *

><p>.<p>

No vocab on this one. And no endless rant either.

.

Leave me a review!

Pretty please?

.

Kisses & Hugs

**-Azure Serenity**


	8. Hands Held High

Bonjour tout le monde ! :3

_(That's Hi everyone! in French lol)_

_._

Sorry for being MIA for so long, but my life's been a complete fuck up lately - for more reasons than I can count. It's depressing, really...

Just know that I am not giving up on my fanfictions! I would never do that!

.

**Announcement:** For those of you who were Scarlet Ambiguity fans (if you aren't, go read it and you will be!) the sequel's called Auburn Resonance and I'll start writing it as soon as my writing-vibe/plot bunnies come back (fucked up life = motivation going down the drain). Anyhow, all I need to work on for it is the big evil plot and bad guys - I'm thinking... maybe mixing up our beloved ninja world to ours (guns and technology-wise)... how does that sound? Or maybe not... Anyway, like I said, still working on it.

By the way, for the more curious ones who can't wait, let me know and I'll give you a little preview of the first chapter! :P

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**Shoutout to: **Saiyuri Haruno, PLLluverr99, DefineNightmare, SasuSakuKawaii, Sakura Crystals,  .Fire, Girlalicious, XxSeikaxX and keiko-uchiha who left me some amazing reviews! You guys are what keep me going! :3 Thank you for being so supportive! It keeps me going! :]

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**A.N.** I do not own Naruto or it's characters. On the other hand, this story and its plot came from my imagination, so that I do own. Please respect that.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**Wisteria Blues  
><strong>

**Summary: **Books were her friends, charcoal & ink her allies, music her escape and photography her outlet. So... what was he?

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

** Part VIII** - Empty Spaces

**.**

**.: ~ lv ~ :.**

**Seoul, 1:27pm**

Involuntarily, Hinata tapped her foot against the floor. She'd woken up to a nervous edge and queasiness at the pit of her stomach. She didn't know why—she wished she did—but she had. So she sat by the school entrance, on the small garden wall, tapping her foot nervously. She knew it irritated her fellow classmates—hell, it irritated her—but she couldn't help it.

The nervous feeling in her gut had only gotten worse ever since that morning.

"…" she opened her mouth to curse, but then decided to keep the words to herself.

Just a little more and she swore she'd start whining. And she never whined. Ever.

"Wow there, someone drank too much caffeine this morning." She looked up feeling ticked off, but oddly vulnerable. His blond hair was what she saw first.

He looked even taller from where she was sitting, tapping her foot. His easy grin made her feel a little more at ease.

"I don't drink coffee." He rolled his deep blue eyes, snorting.

"I said caffeine not coffee." He let himself drop next to her and lounged there, stretching his legs and leaning back on his arms. He'd always been easygoing.

"So…" he started nonchalantly. "Where's our emo drama queen?" she couldn't help the light giggle, he was the only one who would ever call their red haired friend that—and manage to get away with it.

"Don't be mean." He feigned being hurt. She rolled her eyes.

"Seriously though, where is he?" she glanced at Deidara, who was now leaning forward and looking through the crowd of students, his blond hair in the usual half ponytail. He was so odd, and yet he had no trouble at all fitting in. She envied him for that. Then again, he was half-Greek and half-French, so she guessed that was why he was so friendly and seemed to fit in everywhere.

"I don't know." He huffed, pouting afterwards.

"I swear, if he bailed through the back I'll hunt him down."

"Dei!" he looked at her with a childish innocent look.

"What?" she crossed her arms and opened her mouth, ready to lecture him about his threats. She should've been faster, because he shot to his feet, suddenly grinning again.

"There he is!" she sighed. He truly had the attention span of an artist.

She got up—now, at least, she wasn't tapping her foot—and followed her blond friend towards their red haired friend and classmate.

He glared from behind his bangs the second he saw the blond. She cringed, that wasn't good.

Deidara, as usual, seemed unaffected and swung an arm around his shoulders.

"Hey man, s'been a while!" she started fidgeting when he shoved the blond back, adjusting the strap of his bag on his shoulder.

"H-hi G." she couldn't help the stutter. He was intimidating when he got like that.

His jade green eyes looked at her. He nodded.

"Hinata." Deidara huffed in the background.

"Oh, yeah, go ahead, ignore your hyung." The sarcasm couldn't be missed. G scoffed.

"We…" she paused before she stuttered and started again. "Are you still coming with us to the caf—" he cut her off.

"I'm going home." She shied away from him when he walked past her. Dei wasn't so kind.

"Oh no you don't you dick." He grabbed the back of G's jacket and pulled.

"Let go." Dei huffed and glared.

"Yeah…" he drawled. "Like that's gonna happen." G tried to break free. Dei held on tighter.

"Nuh uh man, you're coming with us." And off they went, Dei dragging the redhead.

The blond looked back at her with a grin.

"C'mon Hinata!" she nodded and caught up to them, giggling as G kept trying to break free from the blonde's hold on his jacket.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ lvi ~ :.**

Now that they were all on their usual table at the café, she wasn't so sure about the plan.

She chanced a glance at the two males. One was lounging back on his chair while sipping his hot chocolate, the other stood rigid on his chair, arms crossed and refusing to touch his drink. She could feel the tension—so thick it could probably be cut with a knife.

Sighing, she took a sip of her cocoa. When she looked up, ready to say something—she didn't know what exactly—Deidara spoke.

"We need to talk about Sakura." She choked on air and coughed at his bluntness. G stiffened and outright glared a frigid glare.

"No we don't." she gulped. Could see the serious look on Deidara's face.

"Yes, we do." She didn't know if it was possible, but G's glare intensified.

"No." she shrunk back in her seat, her foot going back to tapping nervously. "We. Don't." he said each work carefully, his jaw clenched. Dei wasn't one to drop anything.

"We do, and we are gonna talk about it."

"No, we're not." With that G got up and made for the door. Dei got up quickly and grabbed him.

"Yes we are." He pushed the red head back. "So sit the fuck down and don't make a scene." G pushed back.

"Fuck off _hyung_." And the usually polite term was clearly meant as an insult. She could see Deidara was ready to strike back, and that would lead to violence. She clenched the hem of her skirt between her fingers.

"Stop it. Both of you." They froze, bodies tense, and looked at her. She gave them a pleading look. "Please?"

Her foot tapped. She wished it didn't.

G was the first one to take a step back, closing his eyes in irritation and letting out a heavy breath. Still with a dark-cloud-over-his-head-mood, he sat back down, dropping his bag at his feet. Dei followed suit, sitting down slowly while never taking his eyes off the other male.

Silence ensued. The kind of silence that makes people stand on edge. It was very uncomfortable, and Hinata had the sudden urge to cry.

The boys were still glaring at each other.

She decided to break the awkward silence.

"W-we need t-to talk a-about it." She looked up at them meekly, clenching the hem of her skirt in her hands.

There was a pause.

Deidara reached forward and smacked G at the back of his head. The red headed glared.

"What was that for?" the glare was murderous. The blond pointed at Hinata.

"You're making her cry."

She looked down when they both looked at her. She hated being the center of attention.

G leaned back on his chair, arms crossed. In front of him on the table, his drink stood untouched.

"Fine, you wanna talk, then talk." Deidara crossed his arms too.

"We can't just ignore the matter." G snorted.

"Right." She shrunk back in her seat some more, foot still tapping nervously.

"Goddamnit." The blond slammed his hand down on the table. "She's gone, on the other side of the Pacific!" around them, people stopped talking and stared.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock." And the boys were back to glaring.

Forcing her foot to stop tapping and shoving down the urge to cry, she gathered herself and faced them.

"When was the last time you heard from her?"

They did a collective pause. Everyone around them went back to minding their own business.

Dei sighed and leaned back on his chair.

"A few weeks." She blinked, she hadn't hear anything since… since she'd called her.

"G?" she met his eyes for a second before he looked away, back to crossing his arms. He didn't answer though.

She twisted the hem of her skirt between her fingers, glad the nervous tapping was gone.

"She seemed almost happy when I talked to her last month." And it was the truth, Sakura had seemed almost like herself when they'd spoken.

The blond sighed.

"Yeah, well, she sure as hell didn't when she called me." G clenched his teeth.

"She called _you_?" he hissed the words, a dark look crossing his eyes.

She decided she didn't want them to start fighting again, so… she asked the first question that popped into her mind.

"What did she say?"

"You mean besides the crying and sobbing?" he gave her a tight smile. One of those that have nothing happy about them. "Not much." He sighed again.

She blinked. And worried.

"That bitch just doesn't have a conscience." And by bitch they all knew it meant Sakura's mother.

Out of the corner of her eyes she could see the shake in G's hands even though he did a pretty good job at hiding it. Out of them all, he'd been the closest one to Sakura, she could only imagine how much it hurt him that she'd called them and not him. Because even though he didn't say anything, she knew he was the only one who hadn't spoken to their pink haired friend since she'd left. He didn't try either.

But then… then…

They all used to be so close. All of them. But somehow, Sakura leaving broke them all apart.

Dei was busy with college and G was back to being by himself. And she… she just tried to not think about it.

"I… hm, we…" she shook her head and clenched her fingers over the fabric of her skirt. Gathering herself, she chanced a look at both of them. "I think we should call her."

There was a collective moment of pause in which she wondered whether she should have kept her mouth shut.

And then Deidara exclaimed his agreement.

Too bad that, when she glanced at their red haired friend, he looked as if he was about to bolt out the door.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ lvii ~ :.**

**Los Angeles, 5:03 a.m.**

She stood—or rather, lay—facing the dark ceiling, eyes tired, staring blankly. If you asked her, she could tell you everything there was to know about the white-ish ceiling—from how the color changed with sunrise to how many little ups and downs there were.

Coming from outside, the sound of a car driving by travelled inside. If only she could sleep instead of being forced to stare blankly at the stupid ceiling.

Frustrated beyond belief—and exhausted beyond possibility—she sat up angrily, not sure whether to destroy something or cry.

She didn't remember having this much trouble sleeping since… since Italy.

Taking a few deep breaths to calm down, she threw the covers off the bed and got up, pacing back and forth between the bed and the couch. In the dark.

She kicked the couch. "Damn it." And then she cursed in every language she knew.

Feeling helpless, she let herself slide against the back of the leather couch until she sat on the floor, facing the bed. She looked at it longingly.

A few minutes of silence passed, and then she pulled up her knees and buried her face in her hands.

The tears slid between her fingers into the wooden floor.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ lviii ~ :.**

**12:39 p.m.**

Naruto stood fidgeting in line, eyeing the last few slices of pizza longingly. For once the cafeteria had decent food, the teacher had to have kept him from leaving the classroom until the last minute.

And now he stood behind a gazillion people, hoping he'd at least have a few slices—hell, even _just one_ slice of pizza would make him happy.

The line moved a couple of steps.

"Come on, come on, come on." He mumbled the words under his breath and watched as the stupid pigs in front of him took more and more of the slices on display.

He bit his lip when the pizza—the heavenly goodie—stood in his reach.

The last slice.

Oh dear god, he could almost see it surrounded by light, as if an angel had left it there for him.

He could've almost cried at his luck.

He reached for it, his finger brushing against the porcelain of the plate it was in.

The pleasure.

The happiness.

The ecstasy.

And then it was gone.

He stared at his—empty—hand.

Frown.

He looked around.

The moment he saw _him_, he glared. Murderously.

"Holly fuck, you did **not** just do that." The bastard had the audacity to turn around looking oblivious. He growled.

"Did what?"

"_You are so dead you fuckin' bastard."_ He opened his mouth to rip the jackass a new one, but then said tool 'innocently' reached into his trey and 'innocently' took a bite of the last—_goddamned_—slice of pizza.

His jaw went slack.

"_He did __**so**__ not just do that…"_

* * *

><p><em>.<em>

**.: ~ lix ~ :.**

She watched him, head tilted into her hand, amusement in her eyes.

He sat in front of her in a table outside the cafeteria in the garden, angrily shoveling pasta into his mouth while mumbling to himself about death and murder and castration.

The sun reflected in his golden blond hair, while his eyes were dark, shadowed by his bangs. He looked majorly pissed off.

A smile tugged at her lips.

She remembered seeing Dei with a similar look on several occasions, hunched over and mumbling. Now that she thought about it, Naruto was a lot like Dei. Sunny and warm and always with a ready grin. Loyal to a fault.

She blinked at the thought, the smile momentarily disappearing from her face. But then she looked back at the mumbling blond maiming his pasta and the smile was back.

"_It's impossible not to like them."_ For some reason the thought warmed her.

"So, who kicked your puppy?" he stabbed the pasta in his plate and then paused to look up at her, frowning.

He blinked when he met her eyes.

She could've almost laughed when, the next second, he pouted.

"The bastard stole the last slice of pizza." He glared at nothing in particular. "He _**so**_ did it on purpose." He stabbed his pasta some more, grumbling about dicks and their jackassdery.

She giggled to herself. It was endearing to watch him vent.

When he looked at her again, he was back to pouting.

"It was the _last_ slice." She couldn't help the giggle at his whine.

He crossed his arms. "It's not funny."

She tilted her head. "It's a little funny."

He huffed and went back to eating his pasta. Minus the maiming.

"No, s'not." She rolled her eyes goodheartedly.

"Well, you _have_ been stealing his parking space every day…" she let the sentence hang in the air, trying not to grin.

The smile tugging at his lips didn't go unnoticed.

"He's an asshole." Forkful of pasta to his mouth.

She pondered on that. Shrugged.

"I'm with you on that one."

He snorted, then swallowed.

His grin was infectious, so she smiled as they high-fived.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ lx ~ :.**

Biology, their last class of the day, seemed to drag on and on infinitely.

It wasn't that Biology was that boring, it was just… well…

Naruto tapped his fingers against the table soundlessly, glaring through the corner of his eyes to his right, where the—_asshole, jackass, douch_—bastard sat.

The teacher asked a question about the biosphere.

Silence stretched on.

Forced voluntary.

Tick, tock.

Tick, tock.

Tick, tock.

Someone nudged his side.

He glanced to his left, the glare instantly vanishing as he saw Saki motioning towards her notebook.

He held in the sudden urge to burst out laughing and snorted.

She leaned back casually.

On the half-blank notebook page stood doodles of him killing the jackass to his right several different ways.

Oh yeah, he definitely loved her.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ lxi ~ :.**

Nothing was ever as it seemed. Or so he kept telling himself over and over again.

Because honestly, he wanted to believe that everything would go back to normal and after class they would all go to Starbucks. His idiot of a best friend would keep whining and complaining about something or other, and she would watch from behind her Chai Tea Latte.

He scoffed at his reflection in the bathroom mirror.

Everything was always as it seemed.

At least right then it was.

It was almost March, and nothing had gone back to what he'd become used to calling normalcy.

Then again, he'd already known that once the bubble burst, there would be no turning back.

So he watched from afar as the dobe and _her_ became all buddy buddy and friendly while he was cast aside. She smiled too, that inhibited, genuine smile that lit up her eyes. And she laughed.

"Tch." He glared at his reflection. What was he doing, thinking about them anyway?

But he couldn't help it.

Well, that wasn't exactly true, because he could ignore the blond idiot just fine. It had happened before, Naruto getting pissed off to epic levels and not talking to him for a while. But he always came around. Eventually.

Sakura though, was a completely different story altogether. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get her out of his mind. Especially not when she seemed to not even see him when they crossed paths, or when she stood way too close to the dobe, giggling or laughing or looking happy and carefree in general. He hated it.

He hated being in biology and seeing the two conspiring against him in hushed voices, writing and doodling in each other's notebooks.

But above all, he hated the dreams. It wasn't enough that she consumed his every waking though, he had to dream of her too.

Hyperawareness.

Over a month. Over a full, 30 days, month. And he could account to every single detail about her on that time period. Every piece of clothing, every mood, every unconscious action that betrayed her standoffish behavior. Everything.

It annoyed the crap out of him that she'd started wearing color again at the same time she'd gotten all friendly with Naruto.

But no, that wasn't it.

His dark eyes scanned the crowd bursting in the art classroom until he spotted her, waving at the blond who had walked her to class.

No, it wasn't all jealousy. It really wasn't.

He resented them as well.

Naruto because the moron was supposed to be his best friend, and didn't the saying go '_bros before hoes_'? Apparently it didn't, because clearly, the dobe liked her more—the girl he knew for less than a year—than his childhood best friend.

He resented the dobe because he didn't understand. He just didn't. And because he wanted her, and, the way he saw it, the dobe had no right to want her. Not like that.

So he fed the childish part of him and did everything he could to get under the blonds skin. It was working so far.

She was wearing the usual Converse (navy blue) and blue faded skinny jeans with a plain whide-colared, long sleeved pale yellow shirt that slightly fell off her right shoulder. Her hair was held up by what looked like a pen in a messy bun.

His fists clenched at his sides, and the anger and resentment at the dobe came straight to the surface.

How could he _not_ see?

But then, the blond had never been one to take notice of the details.

Even though she'd smiled at Naruto (he'd seen it with the jealousy monster whispering at his ear), as she sat there in front of her easel—they all had one—looking impassive and calm, he could see it. Even from a distance he could see it.

The broken girl she really was.

Her skin was pale bordering on sickly and her eyes looked dull and restless. He took a wild guess, and would bet on it too, that she'd switched the eyeliner for base in order to hide dark circles under her eyes.

It irked him. Greatly.

She hid behind walls and barriers and kept everyone at least at arm's length. Others even farther.

The teacher was talking now, but he couldn't be bothered to pay attention.

She was doing it again, like she always did when something was bothering her. Scratching her wrist and then stopping. And then scratching again. Was she even aware of the redness on her skin? Or did she not pay attention to details on her own body.

He should've been paying attention before, when he'd had to the chance to be closer to her—much, _much_ closer—instead of now when she'd put a galaxy between them.

He resented her for that.

"_I wasn't using you damn it."_ And he hadn't. Not really. Because all he'd really wanted was for her to look at him, to give him the time of day. Now she never would again.

She was still absently scratching her wrist and only half listening as the teacher walked around the classroom giving out supplies.

"_Goddamnit, stop that."_ He had to stop himself from yelling the words at her, from getting up, storming over and grabbing her hand so that she'd stopstop_stop_.

"_Why?"_ why, why, why, why? The question echoed in his mind in every possible intonation.

But why what? He wasn't sure.

He took the large sheet of paper and the three pieces of charcoal the teacher handed him—just like he had given them to everyone else it seemed.

Her wrist was red and she was still scratching and he had to force himself to look away.

Looking at her face was no better. She looked impossibly tired, exhausted… jaded.

So he decided to actually listen to what the teacher was saying. He shouldn't have.

"…ing a representation of what you see but isn't there. Now then, I'll pair you up and you can start."

It was the most bittersweet feeling when the middle aged man paired him up with _her_.

His fingers tightened around the three sticks of charcoal.

Red, black and green.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ lxii ~ :.**

They had to draw each other, only they weren't supposed to draw the actual person. A representation of what wasn't there, or in other words, they had to draw something that reminded them of the other person.

The majority of students was either complaining about the person they were paired with or about the assignment itself.

He wasn't doing either.

They were sitting facing each other, only… she didn't really see him. She'd taken a look at him and then she was either giving him blank glances of focusing on the paper.

He sighed—quietly of course—and stared at the paper. What did he see when he looked at her?

He saw… he saw…

And then he knew what to draw.

The teacher kept walking about, chastising some students and praising others, but he couldn't be bothered to pay attention to anything other than her.

He knew he wasn't that great an artist, but as long as he didn't have to draw anything humanlike he could manage.

He though, maybe, he was the last to finish.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ lxiii ~ :.**

Most people just drew something related to the person they were drawing.

A football field.

A vase with flowers.

A car.

A Temple.

Others drew ambiguity that no one seemed to be able to name.

_She_ drew something beautiful.

He stared at the drawing in dark blue, white and red and wondered if that was really what she saw. Was it? Did she really see something that… beautiful when she looked at him?

He though, bitterly, she'd probably been thinking about someone else while drawing.

A dark river outlined in white for effect.

A dark sky with stars and a thinning moon. A shadowy red bridge.

The shadows of trees in the background.

And then the fireworks. He didn't know how she'd done it, but she'd done fireworks—bold red, pale red, pink. She'd even lightened the sky around it.

The only thing he could do?

Stare at it in awe.

* * *

><p><strong>.: ~ lxiv ~ :.<strong>

She wasn't paying attention, not much anyway, so when she looked up to see who she'd been paired up with, her heart picked up speed when she saw Sasuke, looking impossibly cold and arrogant in black jeans and a navy blue t-shirt.

She pretended to be busy for a long time, not knowing what exactly she saw when she looked at him.

A dark hole maybe?

Yes, definitely a dark, deep, endless hole where she'd fall if she let him in.

But then…

"_Why me?" "You're different."_

"_I'm not using you."_

But he had been. Hadn't he?

He'd blackmailed her into… what exactly? Because as far as she could tell, she wasn't sure what he'd wanted exactly, because it hadn't been all about the kissing and touching. She couldn't say it had, because it hadn't and she knew it.

And yet…

Her fingers tightened on the white piece of charcoal and she gave him a guarded glance. What was so special about him?

"_And why did he go to such lengths to get to you?"_ she ignored the voice in her head. That was a dangerous question she did not want to ponder over.

She had enough going on, she didn't need one more thing to add fuel to the fire.

Especially when she remembered the way Daniel had looked when apologizing to her for the bad manners when he had come to pick her up once—the day Sasuke had played savior. She remembered perfectly.

She hadn't known what to say, but her _stepfather_ had meant every word.

She bit her lip. She remembered sitting at Starbucks with him, watching him from over her latte. How standoffish he'd looked. How perfectly aloof. And yet…

Absently, she started doodling, and when the outline of a red bridge started appearing on the paper, she knew exactly what she saw in him.

She saw hidden mysteries, like shadows in the night. She saw excitement and passion. She saw the contained rebel he really was—a bad boy playing nice, a wolf in sheep's clothing. Unpredictable, like fireworks.

But he was solid too. Real. A safe place, yet dangerous at the same time. A bridge with a cracked beam. Somewhere you would always go to for solace even if you knew it could collapse at any moment.

The river was just an added touch. For effect. And maybe to symbolize change, because everything changed—but still for effect.

And water was unpredictable too.

She zoned out after she finished, only coming out of it when she noticed _him_ leaving the room. She blinked slowly and noticed everyone else exiting as well.

She gathered her things and hesitated. She hadn't been paying attention, so she hadn't seen what he'd drawn. Then again, maybe it was for the best.

Two seconds later she found herself staring at black. A lot of black. And green and red.

Her breath caught in her throat as she gasped.

"_He… he…"_

It was no masterpiece worthy of the Louvre, but it was heartbreakingly beautiful just because it was about her.

In black, there were shadows, outlines of a room filled with boxes and miscellaneous items she couldn't quite decipher—not extraordinarily well done outlines, but they were decent.

What made her react, though, was what he'd drawn right at the center of the page.

A tall mirror that looked old and dusty, with several cracks at the edges, one particularly lengthy. And then the chains, wrapped tightly around the frame and glass, hooked to the ceiling and the ground.

He'd given the chains a reddish tint, more than rust, almost blood-like, and the frame of the mirror was outlined in green, forming loops and swirls until it all came together at the top to form some kind of symbol. She vaguely remembered Dei showing her Celtic symbols once.

At the bottom of it all, there seemed to be the outline of an open door, light shining in. A silhouette of someone. All of it reflected on the cracked mirror.

The smudge handprint he'd tried to draw at the center of the mirror was more childish than anything else.

And again she thought that his drawing wasn't worthy of the Louvre or any other museum like most of Dei's paintings and G's drawings were. That it shouldn't mean anything. That he didn't mean anything.

But it did. It all did. _He_ mattered. And that scared her.

It scared her because he saw right through her. It scared her because he saw _her_—broken and raw and desperate.

With trembling fingers, she traced the edges of the paper and told herself, as she rolled the charcoal drawing, and bolted out the door, that the only reason she took it was because she wanted it destroyed.

She skipped biology and slid the drawing in an architect tube, then put it in the highest shelf in her closet.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**.: ~ lxv ~ :.**

Everything seemed to become a lulling routine. Or a habit.

She'd hang out with Naruto, avoid Karin and her mother, and occasionally bump into Daniel, who was a man her mother didn't deserve. Hinata and Dei called, and she loved them for being so overprotective. For some reason, their conversations always lulled her into a sense of peacefulness.

March wasn't being very kind, with rain and mist in abundance. Somehow, it reminded her of home.

She closed her eyes, sitting at the top of the stairs leading to the rooftop garden, and let herself think of home.

On days like these, they'd go to the café for some hot cocoa. Seoul would smell like winter and spring mixed together, like budding flowers and ice. Outside, they'd walk huddled together, laughing and giggling. Hinata would be all wrapped up in fluffy gloves and an equally as fluffy scarf. Dei would have his favorite jacket and G would be wearing leather.

She sighed and looked up at the gloomy sky.

"_Have you talked to him?"_ Hinata had only asked once, and she and Dei hadn't insisted on the subject or lectured her about the fact that she hadn't. Yet…

She could feel their apprehensiveness, could just see the look they'd give her—reproachful, disappointed. But how was she supposed…? What was she supposed…?

She couldn't just tell him that she hated her life. That she was back to having trouble sleeping, that her _ stepsister_ did everything she could to make her life a living hell, that she'd only made a friend because someone was blackmailing her, that…

She looked away from the sky and gloomy garden and buried her face between her bent knees, crossing her arms over her head.

How was she supposed to tell him that she missed him, but she'd still… he'd never forgive her, and it wasn't fair to him. She'd rather he hate her. She was sure he did.

She was a coward. And an idiot.

And she needed something to fill her mind with something else.

When the bell for Art rang, she felt tempted to bail—mainly because she was still paired up with Sasuke and she hated that she felt almost naked next to him—but then decided against it. It wasn't as if he could do anything in a room full of people.

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**Note:** This chapter is a sort of interlude, if you will, so there isn't much action. We do see, on the other hand, a little glimpse of the Seoul crew! And some more of the complicated SasuSaku onesided (on both sides) relationship.

Not sure about the last part of this chapter... maybe I should've done something else... but I'm happy about it too... what do you guys think?

.

**Question: **So... for the next chapter, what would you guys like to see: more of what's going on in Seoul, more Naruto, more Sakura, more Sasuke or more glimpses of what hasn't been said yet?

.

Kisses & Hugs!

**- Azure Serenity**


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